Children of Light
by Pamela Eaton
Summary: Crossover with Roswell.


Title: Children of Light 

Author: Pamela Eaton 

Email Address: peaton@mail.orion.org 

Rating: PG-13. Violence and the occasional swear word. 

Summary: A Crossover between Roswell and First Wave. The Twice-Blessed Man (First Wave) comes to Roswell in search of "children" prophecied in the book of Nostradamus. Gua Acolytes are searching for those "children" too. Mostly action, but there is some romantic focus. Takes place right after River Dog, but before Blood Brothers. 

Disclaimer: The Gua, the First Wave characters and stuff don't belong to me. Cade Foster will be returned fairly unharmed. I give my word. :) Same for the brief appearances of Crazy Eddie and Joshua. And that goes for the Roswell people too. Though honestly I wouldn't -mind- keeping Michael. O:) Heh, but I won't. I'll give them all back. They are not mine. No profit being made here. This is just my way of celebrating two great Alien-themed shows and possibly converting a few Roswellians over to the First Wave and a few Twice-Blessed Man followers over to Roswell. The Quatrains are original, except for the Twice-Blessed Man one. There are also a few quotes from various episodes of First Wave. 

Category: Action/Crossover/SciFi-ish. Some romantic undertones. Liz/Max and Michael/Maria mainly. 

Author's Notes: The story switches between Cade Foster, Liz Parker and Max, Michael and Isabel with a little Maria thrown in for flavor. Joshua, Sheriff Valenti and Eddie also get a crack in. Don't confuse Crazy Eddie with "Freakin'" Eddie. Two totally different people. 

If you haven't seen Roswell I'm trying to fill in any holes you might not understand, but here's the brief (including basic spoilers): 

Max and Isabel Evans and their friend Michael Guerin are survivors of the Roswell Crash. They don't know how the crash happened, or anything about their people. They woke up in 1989 in pods in human bodies that were approx. 6 years of age. They have super-natural abilities, including the ability to manipulate molecular structures (heal, turn ketcup into mustard, ect), get "flashes" (memories) from objects and people, walk into dreams and other such things. The only people who know of their alien origins are Liz Parker and Maria DeLuca. Max Evans had to heal Liz Parker one day when she was shot and that's how they found out. 

Prologue: 

Quatrain 27, Century 8 

Survivors of slain ancient enemy, Hunted by all, though known by few. Children of energy and light, Fiery avengers of their ancestors' fate. 

"Three months after my "near-death" experience and the discovery of the Aftertime from a messenger from the future, I'm getting off the bus in the infamous town of Roswell, New Mexico on a hunch. A substantiated hunch, but still a hunch. There's no proof this Quatrain has anything to do with Roswell, or the UFO sightings and supposed cover-ups in that area. In fact, if it wasn't for a phone call from Joshua tipping me off, I probably wouldn't have made the connection between the two. 

"Crazy Eddie thinks the government cover-up of what really happened at Roswell has something to do it. I have yet to be convinced it wasn't just a Gua "test" like the one I got stuck in near Washington, DC months back. What the rest of it means, is anyone's guess. But I have a feeling it could be a key to defeating the Gua and ending the First Wave, though I'm not getting my hopes up. 

"Joshua's conversation was brief, and consisted of many riddles, but in the short sense he asked me to go to Roswell and follow a lead there. A lead that the Gua themselves are following up. With Acolytes. Alien Assassins, like Joshua. Whether it's renegade Gua or a human who's threatening their presence on Earth or lone survivors from another future Earth perhaps? I don't know. I only hope to find out." 

Cade Foster 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Chapter One The Crashdown 

Roswell, New Mexico. It was warmer then he'd thought it would be, especially in mid-November. But then growing up in Chicago hadn't prepared him for this kind of weather. Cade Foster took off his leather jacket and slung it over his shoulder as he stepped off the bus. His fake ID for this town had him down as one Kincaid Nichols, a freelance researcher of paranormal phenomenon focusing on proving the existence of extraterrestrial lifeforms. He even had a instant Doctorate in the subject of parapsychology. He found the idea rather ironic when Crazy Eddie handed him the new ID. An Alien Hunter by trade, pretending to be an Alien Hunter. Of course Dr. Nichols was renowned for writing dozens of credible papers on the subject. Cade dreaded the day someone actually tried to hunt down those papers, instead of just getting a list of his credentials. 

Touching the microphone Eddie had planted on his T-shirt, Cade whispered subtly, "Testing. Do you still got me, Eddie?" 

A moment later that well-known voice buzzed in his ear from the nearly invisible ear piece. "Got you loud and clear, buddy. Where do you want to go first? There's all kinds of UFO museums and terrorist traps around the place." 

"I was actually thinking of getting something to eat first. Haven't had anything to eat for a whole state." Which meant dinner the night before. It was rather early morning, 6:30, give or take a few minutes. He wanted some breakfast. "Know any places that are open this early that are close on foot?" 

"Just a minute, let me check the city map." There was the sound of fingers running across a keyboard, then the voice returned triumphantly, "Just a block away, go left, then turn right at the first corner, there's a place called the Crashdown Cafe. It's a theme restaurant. The opening time only started about three minutes ago, so you might be the only customer." 

Cade started in the direction of the Cafe he mentioned, and responded, "Alright, I'm gonna be quiet for a while so people don't start thinking I'm insane." 

The Crashdown Cafe wasn't hard to spot. Not at all. Big Flying Saucer shaped awning hanging over the doorway kind of gave it away. It looked rather... corny. But then almost every Theme Restaurant he'd ever been to was like that. Even the Pirate themed one he went to with Hannah one year. He gave a distant sigh at the thought of his dead wife, murdered at the hands of the aliens. He glanced around an extra time at the memory, checking to make sure there where no police officers in sight. The last thing he needed was to get IDed as Cade Foster, wife murderer, and hauled in again. Or chased through three counties like when he was in Montana. 

There was only one vehicle in front of the restaurant. A jeep. Almost all metal. Nothing flashy. He saw the Open sign was turned to face outward, so he headed in, seeing five teenagers talking in the restaurant. All eyes turned on him, and the voices stopped. Two of the teenagers, girls; one with short blond hair, the other with long brown, were in waitress uniforms, with Alien Antennai sticking off their heads. The other three were garbed in dark attire. Jackets and sweaters. Odd. But then he assumed they were used to the heat, so it didn't bother them. Two teenage boys, and another girl. One of the boys was leaner then the other, more clean cut in appearance. The girl was dressed fashionably in dark leather jackets and tight jeans, long blond hair braided. And the other... well... he reminded Cade far too much of himself when he had been sixteen. Which was a scary thought. 

At their continued stares, Cade motioned towards the sign, "It said 'Open' so I just walked on in. I just got off the bus and am looking for some breakfast." He felt kind of awkward having to explain that. It was a restaurant. Not like it was customary to knock before entering or anything. 

One of the waitresses, the dark haired one, jumped slightly and made 'come on in' motions, "Sorry, just it's a little early. Not used to people coming until at least seven." 

He offered her his kindest smile, and moved to find a seat, a decent distance from the teenagers. The girl who spoke fetched a menu and handed it to him, saying, "That's the breakfast choices." she pointed at a section of the menu. 

The Menu. Now there was something even more cheesy then the outfits and the decorations. Will Smith Burger? Scrambled Alien Brains? Blood of Alien Smoothie? He ordered what he -hoped- were some kind of egg and a cup of coffee. 

That little voice in the back of his head, also known as Crazy Eddie, said amusingly, "I really should drop by that place sometime. Sounds like I'd enjoy it." Cade smirked and shook his head, not noticing the weird looks the three "non-waitresses" were giving him. When he finally did glance at them to buy the time, he noticed something very odd. The clean cut boy was pouring Tabasco sauce all over his eggs. Not just a touch for flavor. The whole bottle! Now that was weird. There was another empty bottle laying against the table. 

When his breakfast finally came, the girl, Liz according to her name tag smiled at him and said, "So anything else I can help you with, sir?" 

"You can call me Cade. Cade Nichols. I'm just in town for a few days, so if you could point me towards areas of interest I would greatly appreciate it." 

Crazy Eddie's voice filled his ear and said, sounding insulted, "I thought that's what I was for?" 

He pushed the a retort out of his mind as the girl asked, "Well what are you interested in exactly?" 

He instantly pulled out his card, which read: 

Dr. Kincaid R. Nichols Parapsychologist 

"Um... Dr. Nichols..." Liz sounded a little awkward, then it instantly vanished and she said, "Well, there's a UFO museum across the street. Though it's mostly for the tourists. You can sign up for a tour of Roswell there, and that will take you to all the sights of interest for your field. Other then that, can't help you. Never studied up on much parapsychology. I'm more into conventional science." 

Crazy Eddie's voice rang out again, "She's lying. I can hear it in her voice." But Cade wasn't paying attention. At the words "parapsychology" the boy that reminded him too much of himself looked over and gave a rather intimidating glare. The blond waitress looked startled, and the other two tensed slightly. The reactions, topped with Eddie's paranoid response to the girl, tipped him off. His Alien Hunter senses were going wild. He needed to find out who these teenagers were. 

Showing no visual reaction besides a nod, Cade pocketed the card again and said, "Thank you, young lady. I'll be sure to go look at the museum later." 

She went back to the group, talked with them, the blond waitress, Maria, came over and offered him refills on his coffee every time it got low. He stayed put for at least thirty minutes. Two other customers came in between those times, and he got the names of the other three teenagers. Or at least their first names. The clean cut one was Max, the girl was Isabel and the "little Cade" was Michael. After he got the last of their names, he paid for his meal, and gave both the girls a generous tip, then left to see the sights Roswell had to offer. Starting in the most un-paranormal place. The High School. Cause one of the teens, Maria, mentioned they had to be there in an hour. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Cade Foster stepped foot into West Roswell High the same time Eddie finished with the check of the school's database. A Super Hacker like him had no problem getting past the minimal security measures and getting the information he wanted. Namely a list of all the students in W. Roswell High that match the descriptions of the five he met in the Cafe. "There were five matches. DeLuca, Maria. Evans, Isabel. Evans, Max. Guerin, Michael. Parker, Liz." 

Whispering as subtly as possible into the microphone, Cade told him, "Pull as much of their records as you can get. Then check the local hospitals. Birth records, dental, the works." 

"Piece of cake. Now if you want to see if the FBI have files on them, that would be a real challenge." And he sounded like he wanted the challenge, which Cade didn't doubt at all. 

"Local records for now. No reason to chance you getting caught until we have something to go on. They could just be teenagers after all." 

"Hah. 'Just teenagers'. There's no such thing, Foster." 

"Just do it!" Cade said a little too loudly and earned a glance from a woman standing not too far away. She was of teacher age, probably mid-twenties. Long blond hair. He offered a half smile and said, "Just talking to a little voice in my head. My genius." 

"Oh, you're flattering me, now hush up, I got work to do." said 'genius' replied before the teacher could. 

When she did she just raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Well, normally I would ask you to come to my office so we could talk about these voices, but you are obviously not a student. I'm Kathleen Topulski. The Guidance Counselor here at West Roswell High." 

Guidance Counselor hmm? Bet she knows a lot about the students. Might be able to help me out... Now which ID should he pull was the question? He had so many, and Eddie could write up a file in a few minutes and make sure it's in every computer someone would check before they had time to finish the conversation. But then he decided to keep with his identity. "I'm Kincaid Nichols. I was just going to look around the school for a few minutes. I'm visiting." No need to give his profession until she asks. 

Suddenly that voice rang in his ear again, "This Topulski lady isn't who she says she is. Just ran a computer check on her. It's all way too clean, Foster." 

And at the same time she was speaking. Filtering both speakers at once was almost impossible, so he filtered only Eddie for the moment. But he caught the gist of what the woman had said. He needed to check into the office first, then he could have a tour. He offered his best smile, and said, "Thank you, Ms. Topulski. I'll go do that. I hope I see you again later." He really did. Even if she wasn't who she said she was. Cause then she could be the Acolyte Joshua had warned him against. He started in the direction of the office, as a arrow pointed towards, then ducked around the hall and found a broom closet to hide in, so he could talk with Eddie without any strange looks. 

"Alright, talk now. What do you mean she's not who she says she is?" 

"Just a minute... running a code..." 

Cade paced impatiently, waiting. Waiting... waiting. Finally five minutes later Eddie made a sharp yell and said, "Damnit, Foster! You just talked to an FBI agent!" 

"Are you kidding? She's a little young to be in the FBI..." But then again there were Agents as young as twenty-six. Even younger. Just not too many. 

"She's twenty-eight, Foster. And she's a psychologist. The rest of her file is completely locked up though. I could try to get into it somemore, but it would take a little longer, and I'd have to take a few more precausions..." He sounded worried, and no doubt was. He was paranoid after all. "Might be best to high-tail it, Foster. You are near the top of the FBI most wanted list, you know. Joshua could be wrong. Or this could be a trap. You were almost killed on the last goose chase he sent you on." 

"Correction, Eddie: I was killed. In one timeline at least." Cade still thought that was funny. Saved by a woman from the future. Reminded him of a movie he saw once. "And he might not be wrong or setting me up. And if there are these so-called 'Children of energy and light' here, then I should find them before the Gua do, don't you think?" 

"It's just you almost didn't get out when you were caught back in Chicago, Cade." 

Oh. He was really worried. Eddie almost never called him by his first name. It was usually 'Foster-this and Foster-that'. "Don't worry," Cade tried to ease his friend's paranoia on the subject. "If she starts acting suspiciously I'll leave. Now tell me what you have on the kids." 

"Alright... alright. Do you want the brief or long form?" 

"Long. I got plenty of time." That is of course if the battery on these things didn't run out. 

But they didn't, and he got information on all five. Everything from address, to phone number, to dental records, to doctor appointments, to class schedules to grades.... 

Liz was a straight-A student. Excelling in all subjects, but even more in science. Treasurer of the Roswell Science Club. Parents owned the Crashdown Cafe and they lived above it. Lived in Roswell all her life. Her dental records were normal with that of a teenager. A few cavities, fillings, braces a few years back. Yearly appointments. She'd had a broken arm back when she was eleven, and recently her paternal grandmother died from complications after a stroke. She was present when her grandmother died. Birth records were all fine, nothing to tip off Eddie or Cade's senses. 

Maria had a few problems here and there. Decent grades, but nowhere near stellar. Father left when she was young. Worked at the Crashdown with her friend. A few minor medical problems, a few deep cuts from a bike accident when she was thirteen that required stitches. Mother made alien accessories and sold them locally, a job not uncommon in Roswell. Maria was in a fender bender with the town Sheriff a few weeks back. Minor damage to the car. 

The other three though. That's where things got strange. Eddie saved them for a reason. First he explained the Evanses. 

Isabel and Max were found on the side of the road at the age of six by the Evans family. They had no injuries, no memories of their life before that, and no records. No birth records. No medical records. No finger prints on file. They were adopted as brother and sister, but if they really were was unknown. There was no blood test to see if they could be. Nothing. They had almost no medical records at all. Same with dental. No police records. Their school files were fairly decent. Medium to excellent in range. Max's grades were better then his sisters. 

Then there was Michael. Also found at the age of six with no previous records. He was found in a town boarding Roswell. For the next few years he was passed in and out of foster homes every few months, at the age of nine he came to Roswell to live with a family there, until finally settling in the one who he's been with a little over a year now. Same as the others. Very few records. Though he was caught breaking the town curfew more then once, but the penalties had been minor. A couple arrests here and there. Breaking and entering, trespassing, vandelism, one assualt charge for decking a teacher back in Middle School. Michael spent more time on his hair then his classes, which wasn't saying much. The only class he seemed to care about at all recently was an Art Class. He even had his work displayed. He was in trouble of being expelled if he didn't start coming to classes. 

By the time Crazy Eddie was done with his recital of what he had found, Cade was hooked. Max, Isabel and Michael. Something was definitely not right with them. They could be Gua, he guessed. But it was unlikely. The Gua would never leave a big gaping hole in their backgrounds. Perhaps an escaped experiment? DNA remapped half-breeds, like Julia Loomis maybe? That could explain why Acolytes would be after them. If it was them the prophecy was referring to. The bell outside rang, and after waiting a few minutes to make sure the students were in class, he snuck out of the High School again. 

Chapter 2 The Holder 

Pacing outside the school building, trying to decide whether or not to actually go to classes, was one Michael Guerin. Why he didn't like going to classes was a little hard to put in words. He just usually didn't see a reason for it. He went to classes when he felt like it. Mainly whenever he needed to do something. It rarely had anything to do with grades or tests or homework. He often stayed close by outside the school though. To visit with Max and Isabel between classes, eat lunches with them, make sure everything was fine. He'd had more reason lately to show up at the school then usual. Today, he was outside the school for a reason, but the reason why quickly dissolved from his mind as he saw someone step out of the side exit. 

Someone. More specifically someone suspicious. Liz had said his name was Cade Nichols. And that on his card his profession was Parapsychology. Well while Isabel and Max may have dismissed it after a few minutes, he hadn't. They seemed to be under the idea that someone who was really hunting aliens wouldn't go around saying they were a parapsychologist. Especially not in front of suspects. But there was something about him Michael didn't like. 

First, the way he walked. He didn't walk like some scientist hiding behind a desk reading through books and messing with chemicals. He walked like a thief. And having dabbled some in the 'art' himself -- with the help of his powers -- he knew a few things about that. Also, when he walked into the Crashdown and said he came by bus... What man with a Doctorate in Parapsychology rode the bus? And how many of them dressed in leather jackets and jeans? Michael bet he could count them on his hands, and he didn't think Dr. Kincaid Nichols was on that list. If that was really his name at all. 

Going to classes completely vanished from his mind at the sight of him coming out of the school. So did almost everything else. The only thing that latched on was the fact that he had to follow this man. After checking to make sure none of those people the trio of aliens had noticed following them around he took off on his own "tracking" mission. 

As far as he knew the man had no idea he was being followed. He followed him all the way back to the Crashdown, or more accurately, the UFO Center across the street from the Crashdown. He moved to follow, keeping a good distance back, but as he passed the small alley between the UFO center and another building, someone grabbed him from the side. He cursed himself silently for being so careless. 

Whoever it was who grabbed him shoved him deeper into the alley, then pulled out a... gun. A .45 with a silencer on it. Uh. That wasn't good. The person was a woman, short brown hair, in her mid-thirties. Was she one of those people following them lately? He raised his hands and said, "Whatever it was, I didn't do it lady." and he could say that with almost all honesty. She didn't look like a cop, and he'd never seen her before. 

"Shut up, kid. Now tell me where the others are?" 

Definitely not good. He had to get his hands on the gun, then he could melt it and she wouldn't be a threat to him, but she was keeping further then hand's reach. He tried to take a step forward saying, "What others?" but she raised the gun to point it at his face and said, "Not a inch closer or they won't even be able to ID you." 

That got him listening. This was really bad. But Michael tried to still look confused, "Look, lady, I don't know who you're talking about. Now point that thing somewhere else." 

The woman managed a small smirk, "Maybe this'll get you talking..." then with a silenced *piff* she fired a shot. He recoiled at the hit, not moving fast enough to dodge it, and realized she's shot him in left shoulder. 

Damn... Damn... Damn... Damn that hurts! He was still recoiled, grabbing his shoulder and trying to remain on his feet, so he never got to see the man he was following come into the alley with a crowbar in hand, knocking the gun out of the woman's hand. 

"Well, that wasn't very nice." When Michael finally looked up to see what had happened, he saw the Cade person had the woman who just shot him shoved up against the side of the alley. "Now who sent you? The Assembly?" 

"Well if it isn't the infamous Cade Foster." He -KNEW- Nichols wasn't the guys name. Now who this lady was, was anyone's guess. The Assembly? "I wasn't sent here for you, but I'll probably get a few marks for bringing you in as well." 

Foster gave a small nod, as if that's what he expected to hear then said, "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you won't get the chance to tell them I'm here. Now are there any others with you?" 

Her eyes flared for a moment, and then... then her face... her face shifted. Like something crawling under the skin. Rippling as if to reveal something under it. Then she shoved him away from her so hard he impacted against the other side. Michael was moving towards her in a second. He wasn't about to let the woman who shot him get away. He grabbed onto her arm and started to use his heating powers on her. 

And as soon as her flesh started to sizzle and burn a vision flooded his mind. It happened sometimes. When emotions were strong. And these were strong. He could feel how the woman felt about him. She -hated- him. And she was scared of him too. And Foster as well. He saw flashes of a desolate red planet, like pictures of Mars, and this strange white whirlpool in mid-air. A metal sphere. A group of people standing around a table with their arms pointed outward at glowing spheres that looked like the Earth. 

The vision ended when she recoiled with a loud roar which deformed her face in the glowing ripples again. A second later there was another *piff* and she fell back with a gunshot in her chest and... dissolved. 

Dissolved. That's the best word he could come up with. One minute she was laying there with a hole in her sweater. The next the ripples of red were running over her and making a hissing noise. The next there was nothing there but a puff of smoke. Even her clothing was gone. Did he somehow burn her up from the inside out? Whatever it was the Foster-guy didn't seem shocked to have just seem someone vanish into nothingness. 

They looked at each other, then he offered an arm and said, "I better get you to a hospital." 

It was only then that Michael remembered the gunshot in his shoulder. He could easily surpress the pain from his mind when he didn't think about it, but at the reminder it returned, causing him to grit his teeth and cover the wound with his hand again. He shook his head, knowing a hospital equaled a very bad idea, especially when one factored in the part that he wasn't human into the equation. So to change the subject he pointed towards where the woman had been and said, "Forget me, what the -hell- was that?" 

"That, my boy, was an alien." Michael stared. Foster must have taken it for disbelief or shock but it was neither. Well, shock yes, but not disbelief. "Don't worry. She won't be coming back. They don't hold well after they die. I guess it helps them in the end, cause afterwards no one would have any bodies to examine. No proof of their existence." 

He was -right-. This Cade Foster was an alien hunter. But... but if that woman was an alien, then why did she try to kill him? And Max and Isabel and him never looked like -that-. All the rippling... So he decided to play naive teenager, "Uh... aliens in Roswell... who knew." Hoping he hadn't gotten too good a look at his wound, Michael used his powers as best her could to alter the fabric of his jacket and sweater and flesh to make it look like the shot had just grazed him. He couldn't repair the internal damage. He wasn't good enough, Max would have to fix it later. So it still hurt. Then he lowered his hand to show the shifted wound. "Anyway, it's not too bad. I don't need a hospital. Just a bandage. Plus how am I supposed to explain to the Sheriff that I got shot by an alien?" 

"While you should be at school no less." Foster made a quip, then said seriously, "So why was she after you, anyway?" 

"How am I supposed to know?" He answered with total truth. He didn't know. 

Foster seemed to accept that and said, "Well, you better go get that bandaged up. Hopefully you won't see anymore of her kind around here, but if you do..." He paused for a moment, as if contemplating something, then decided to do it and pulled out a card and handed it to him. "My cellphone number is on there." 

This card didn't say 'Kincaid Nichols' or 'Cade Foster' or anything. Just had a phone number typed up on it. Michael gave a shrug, which hurt like hell, then pocketed the card. "Alright. I'm Michael, by the way." He saw no reason not to give his name to a guy who just probably saved his life. By killing an alien... That dissolved when it died. 

One thing was for sure. He had to talk to Isabel and Max. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

When he finally found them it was lunch time, and they were sitting with 'that Maria girl' and Liz. Upon seeing him everyone stood up, and he realized when he stitched up his jacket and shirt, he forgot to make the blood vanish. So he was a little surprised when Max stood up and said, "What happened? Did Hank...?" 

Michael glanced at his shoulder and mentally smacked himself. "Uh, no. But I have to talk to you guys. Now." He had blood all over his hands to. One from covering the wound, the other from where he burned the woman. They all got up, even Maria and Liz, who he hadn't expected to, but he didn't argue. He had to get out of sight before one of the teachers started questioning him. 

They made it out to the Evans' jeep before anyone said anything. It was Maria, "Now what happened to you?" 

After checking to make sure no one was close enough to see much more then an outline, he took off his jacket and pushed up his sleeve enough to show the slightly fixed wound and said, "I was shot, Max, could you fix the rest of it? I could only alter the skin, and I didn't do that good a job, as you can see. It hurts like hell." 

There were worried looks all around, and Max stepped forward and fixed everything, dissolving the bullet lodged in his shoulder blade and fixing all the torn muscles. When he was finished he said, "You shouldn't have tried to fix it, you only made things worse. The blood was backing up under your skin..." 

But Michael interrupted, "Look, Maxwell, I had no choice. It was make it look like it was just a graze, or get dragged to the Hospital." 

Liz tried to look comforting and asked, "What happened?" 

He explained what happened. The woman with the gun. What she'd asked him. The guy they'd seen at the Crashdown coming out of nowhere and saving his life probably. They all stayed silent until he got to the part where the woman's face shifted. 

"What? Explain that again?" Isabel asked, sitting up. "Her face shifted? How does someone's face shift?" 

"I don't know how, Izz, just trust me on this. Her face shifted. It turned glowing red, and then rippled, like something was moving under it. I don't know any other way to explain it." 

Then he went back to explaining, and got as far as him trying to burn her. 

"Michael, why did you do that? That Cade-person could have seen you?" Max said, going into that 'big brother scolding little brother' voice he often used. 

"Will you two shut up and let me finish?" When no one said anything, he did just that. He skipped the vision by accident and went straight to the dissolving. Foster calling the woman an alien. Why he patched up his arm. Everything. When he was done they were all staring at him like he was a mad man. 

After a few moments of silence, he waved his hand, "Well? Isn't anyone going to say -anything-? How about 'sorry you were shot Michael'?" 

It was Maria who spoke first again, "Why would another one of you try to kill you?" 

"Good question. She didn't really stick around long enough for me to ask it though." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, "Though, she didn't -seem- like one of us though. The vision I got..." 

"What vision?" Max asked, leaning closer. 

"Oh, I forgot that part, didn't I? When I burned her I got a short vision. She hated me, and was afraid of me at the same time. But nothing about the vision hinted towards her being anything like us." he shrugged slightly. 

Then Liz burst out, "So there's more then one type of alien in Roswell? Is it just me, or is this getting weirder and weirder?" 

"It's not just you, Liz." Maria said, looking... perplexed, her lips pursed up in a slight confused pout. He couldn't hold back a half-smirk at the sight of her. 

Isabel's voice made him look towards the blond alien, "So you're saying this guy is alien hunter, but he's not after us, he's after other aliens? Aliens that dissolve when bullets hit them? We don't dissolve... do we?" 

"Want me to shoot you and find out?" Michael said in a joke, keeping his voice completely serious, lacking sarcasm and everything. When they all looked at him, he raised his hands innocently, "Just kidding." 

"Very funny," Isabel said sarcastically, "Now what are we going to do? Now we have to worry about strange 'other Aliens' hunting us too? As if the Sheriff and the rest of the world weren't enough..." 

Chapter 3 The Breaker 

Still worried about Michael, Max Evans almost skipped showing up for work all together, but Liz reminded him that the man had said he would drop by the Center. So perhaps going to work would procure some answers to the current mystery engulfing the group of five teens with a secret. A secret which was dangerous. Ever since he'd risked letting the secret get out by saving Liz Parker's life, things had been constantly getting more and more dangerous. For everyone involved. But mostly for the three teenagers who happened to be "not of this Earth." 

After making sure none of the displays were damaged by the tourists, as they had a tendency to be, Max began to clean up the area. Picking up gum wrappers and paper cups left laying around by the visitors. He almost had given up the hope that Cade Nichols or Foster, or whatever was actually going to show up. But sure enough, as soon as he thought he wasn't coming, the man clad in leather jacket, t-shirt and jeans strode in. 

His light brown hair was slightly ruffled and he glanced around for a long moment, as if taking in everything around him, then he stopped, spotting one employee who drew his attention. Of course that employee was Max himself. For a long moment they just looked at each other. 

Max wasn't exactly sure what it was, but there was something... different about this man. A feeling he guessed. He got those sometimes. Not often by any means, but sometimes. Maybe it was just what Michael told of what happened. The whole "alien hunter" business. This was a man who believed. In at least some kind of alien. Perhaps that was it. But he doubted it. It was almost a nagging sensation. He tucked it away into the back of is mind as the man started moving towards him. 

"This really is a small town." The man said with a slight grin. Max stayed silent. He had a tendency not to talk much. Call it shyness, call it politeness. He did it mainly because he usually had no idea what to say. After he seemed to catch on that Max wasn't saying anything, Cade continued, "I saw you at the Cafe across the street this morning. You work here?" 

"Uh.. yeah. The next tour doesn't start for thirty minutes though..." Max said when he finally found something to say. Sometimes he wished he were more skilled at talking openly with people besides Isabel and Michael and Liz and his parents. It probably came from the fact he had a secret that he always had to be careful to hide. He always had to watch what he said. 

Cade continued his slight grin and nodded, "I noticed. I was actually just planning to look around at the exhibits." There was a pause, and then he added, "You're Max, right?" 

"Yes." Max said after a blink or two. How had the man gotten his name? Should he start getting all paranoid, or should he just assume the man had heard it back in the Cafe? 

He nodded, "I'm Cade. Cade Nichols. Do you have a break coming up soon?" Nichols. Foster... whichever his last name was, this still seemed very... off to Max. And that tugging sensation was starting to get to him, even tucked away as it was. 

"Uh..." The man turned his head slightly, to look towards one of the exhibits nearby, and that's when Max saw it and stopped talking. A almost invisible, expertly hidden, ear piece. A glance over the man's shirt found a lump of a microphone. God. The man was wired, and likely there was someone else on the other side of the devices. Was the man an Agent? Or was he just working with someone else. Another Alien Hunter maybe? Whatever it was, Max didn't like it. "Actually, no, I just finished my break." It was a lie, but it was better to lie then to take such a risk. 

There was another moment of awkward pauses, then the man nodded and said, "Very well. Perhaps I'll catch you when you get off work." Then he turned around and went to look at some of the other exhibits. 

His use of words bothered Max. 'Catch'. Then the rest of his mind dwelled on wondering what the man wanted. His boss came over a few minutes after the man walked away and said, "Your shift was over five minutes ago, you know." 

There was a slight jerk into the present and he realized he was. His mind really was wandering. And that man was still watching him even though he was off looking at the Alien Autopsy exhibit. And he'd heard what his boss just said. Damn. Caught in a lie. "Sorry. I thought it was Tuesday." It was a pathetic excuse, but an attempt at one. He still would have two hours if it was Tuesday. 

"Quite alright, Mr. Evans. If you want to spend a while in the Archives you can." Then he walked away. The Archives. Max found them rather fascinating, but today he didn't really want to read up on alien theories or UFO crashes. He'd rather follow a theory all his own. 

After a few steps out the door, just as he figured there would be, Cade's voice rang out behind him, "Looks like I caught you sooner then I was thinking. Think we could talk for a few minutes?" 

Max took a deep breath, then turned around and looked at the man. After a few moments he calmed himself down enough to respond levelly, "Of course. Though I will ask you to do me a favor first." 

A small smile and a, "What favor?" was all he got from Cade. 

And in return he gave a simple, "Turn off the microphone." 

Cade's smile grew, and he pulled the very small mic off his t-shirt and turned it off, then said, "You are good. I'll assume you know what happened earlier with your friend, Michael?" 

"I heard," Max replied, keeping his voice soft and calm, trying not to get too paranoid. Then he turned and started walking away, expecting the man to follow. He didn't want to talk about whatever the man intended to talk about in the middle of the street. Until they found someplace a little less likely of eavesdroppers he was going to keep the conversation geared away from "back-room talk." 

Unfortunately, Cade wasn't so subtle about his words, though he did keep them extremely soft and pitched not to carry, "So do -you- know why she was after your friend?" 

"I wish I did," Max replied honestly. He didn't at all like the idea of some woman shooting at Michael, or asking where "the others" are. He had been so sure no one suspected Michael. But if Valenti thought both Isabel and himself were... "different" then perhaps he put one and two together and figured out the third. Could Valenti have hired someone? It seemed a little low for the Sheriff though, and the woman did dissolve. Normal bounty-hunters don't dissolve, or get called aliens by parapsychologist-Alien hunters. Sigh. This was getting far too complicated. And he thought his life had been difficult -yesterday-. 

There was a long pause as they continued walking side-by-side down the Roswell streets, then Cade asked, "So does 'children of energy and light' mean anything to you?" 

There was that tug again. But Max shoved it into the back of his mind again and merely responded, "Is it a new song or something?" 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

About an hour later, Max found Isabel in his room with Michael, they were discussing something, but whatever it was trailed off when he entered, "So nice to see you all respect the 'no trespassing' sign," he jested softly, then moved to sit down next to Izz on the bed. 

From where he was perched on the floor, Michael gave a slight shrug and said, "Well, you were supposed to be back from work an hour ago. We were starting to get worried." Despite the words, he looked anything but worried. If anything he looked brooding, bored and distant. But then again this -was- Michael. 

"Correction: -I- was getting worried." Isabel said. "So what happened? Get caught indulging more 'guilty pleasures'?" 

"No. Got side tracked by the resident 'alien hunter.'" When both of them started slightly, he added, "I meant Cade Nichols, or Foster, or whatever. He's quite fascinating. Though we didn't go into the subject of aliens." 

"What'd you do then, talk about the weather?" Isabel asked, obviously angry at the idea of her brother talking to the man by himself. A man who'd killed an alien. Even if it likely was some other alien, or not an alien at all, and an alien that had been trying to kill Michael and likely after them too. 

"No, Izz, mostly we talked about music and sports." He said, not really joking. They did talk a lot about normal things. The man was rather nice actually. Not the type he would expect to go around killing aliens for a living. They both stared at him, and he shrugged, "Just telling the truth. He also wanted to know how Michael was. I told him you were fine." 

Michael grinned slightly and said, "It was only a 'flesh wound'." 

Even Isabel smiled at the quote, but it was mostly because of the faked accent he'd thrown in with it. 

There was a long silence, as they all just sat there, then Max turned towards his sister and decided to ask her the favor he needed, "Could you do something for me, Izz?" 

"Not sure I like the sound of that, but what do you want?" 

"Could you get into Cade's dreams tonight?" They both stared at him. He'd never asked Isabel to get into someone's dreams before. It was always her idea, and he'd always tried to talk her out of it. He'd been able to talk her out of taking a peek into Liz's dreams so far at least. Or at least she'd respected that so far as he knew. 

After a moment, Isabel said, "You're serious?" She seemed really surprised, then continued, "Well, I need a picture of him... I don't imagine you asked him if you could snap a Polaroid?" Max shook his head. He hadn't. He forgot about the picture requirement. Though it wasn't really required, just lessened the chances of her jumping into the wrong person's dreams. 

Out of nowhere, Michael said, "Would a sketch do?" 

"Uh... yeah, I guess so." Isabel said, frowning slightly. 

The newly discovered artist in their group shrugged, "Well, I supposedly got all this 'ability'. Might as well put it to some use, don't you think?" 

Max couldn't keep from smiling. Even though he had been risking their necks by dabbling in the arts originally to draw that dome, he was glad his best friend had found something he was good at. "I think it's a great idea, I'll go get some paper and pencils." 

After returning with the paper and pencils, Max and Isabel's parents announced that dinner was ready, and Michael opted to stay upstairs and draw while they ate. Thirty minutes later when they got back up there the sketch was done. It was remarkable. Not perfect by any means, but still good for someone who only started drawing a few weeks ago. It looked like Cade. Even Isabel was impressed. And she wasn't exactly easy to impress. 

But then Isabel dropped the final requirement, and the obvious one. "I have to wait til I'm sure he's asleep, so probably won't be able to take a peek for at least a few more hours. Do you guys want me to wake you up before I venture in?" It was an assumed fact that Michael would be spending the night with them. They all agreed and went to sleep earlyish, to the shock of their parents. 

After a good four hour nap, at around 1:30am, Isabel came back into the room and woke them both up, though Michael took a good few shakes before he eventually opened his eyes. 

"You guys have to promise me if things seem to get weird or I sleep longer then an hour that you'll wake me up. I don't want to get stuck in a dream for five hours or anything." A pause, then Isabel added, "And if I get stuck in some sex fantasy you're gonna pay, Max." 

They both promised and settled in to seats in her room while she prepared for the dream. A touch of the sketch, watching it ripple briefly, then a second later she was asleep. 

Chapter 4 The Dreamer 

At first the dream was like a normal dream. She was walking down the streets of some large city, following behind Cade Foster. It took her a minute to figure out where she was exactly, but she'd seen pictures of Chicago before, and after seeing a few buildings that she recognized she got her bearings. Chicago was somehow important to Foster. Isabel Evans quickly learned during dream walking that people frequent places they know in their dreams. Work, school, home, the mall. Often the places were different in the dreams then in real life. Buildings seemed bigger or smaller. Designs were more intricate or plain. Colors were dulled or brightened. Details sharper or blurred. Here... everything was highlighted with silver, like moonlight casting over everything. 

The sounds of the city were absent, only sound being those made by Foster's feet tapping against the pavement. It was ominous surrounded by tall buildings sheathed in silver light. The lack of apparent life in his dream besides himself was beginning to make her curious, but she didn't want to interrupt until she saw where the dream was going. 

After two blocks, it started getting weird. The buildings suddenly began to shift slightly, turning into backdrop screens. Then something began to show on them. Pictures. Like from a movie. It wasn't too strange at first. She'd seen dreams with "movies" in them before. It was what was being shown on the screen that was strange. Sounds invaded from the background to voice the words of the jumpy scene being shown. 

The scene had the man in the dream sitting around a fire, with a black man laying nearby. The black man had a wound in his stomach the size of a tennis ball. He should be dying, but he only looked in pain. They were talking. The black man started first, in a soft, pained voice, "I was careless." 

Then Cade jumped in, his voice was different in the dream then the one she remembered hearing briefly in the cafe, but only slightly, "You were beaten. Get used to it." 

"I made a mistake." 

"Welcome to the human race." Cade said with a slight ironic sound in his voice. 

"I'm not human. I am Gua." 

Just as the picture was starting to get interesting it did a strange flickering, like someone decided to change the channel. It was only then she realized Cade had passed the building. Isabel hurried after him, trying to catch up before he got out of sight, which would mean the dream would fade for her and she would either wake up, or get sucked into someone else's. When she caught up, another one of those movies were already starting. This one had a woman and Cade, and they were apparently having a picnic, which involved a good amount of kissing and hand wandering. 

Isabel sighed. -That- was one of the reasons she avoided walking into men's dreams. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the dream turned a little too adult for her tastes. Not that she minded peeking in on them sometimes, but male fantasies tended towards the disgusting. But before it got much more intense he passed the building and a new screen flickered on in it's place. Same woman in this one, and he was naked, she was clothed. And he was holding her and crying, whispering her name under tears, "Hannah." She was dead. Isabel could tell by the way her neck was bent, and the fact that she wasn't breathing. 

Foster stopped in his walking a moment, pausing before that scene. Isabel almost felt bad for the man, even though she didn't know him at all really. From the emotions she could feel laced through the dream he truly loved that Hannah. But after only a few more moments he continued forward. And got no further. 

A strange... whirlpool like thing. Like the thing in the episodes of Sliders... appeared in mid-air in front of him. Except unlike being blue like the ones on that TV show, this one was pure white. Something came flying out of it. A silver metallic sphere, about the size of a golf ball. Cade moved rapidly, faster than anyone human could awake, and caught the globe in his hand. He held it in front of him and said, "I know you're here. I will stop you." Then he crushed the sphere in his hands. 

And the world screamed. Or at least the city did. Isabel actually had to cover her ears at the sound of it. Interlacing voices yelled all at once, from all directions. "You're their only hope of survival, yet they salivate at the prospect of tasting your blood." "They're coming! You can't stop them!" "The second wave is closer than you think. It's like a thunderstorm rolling over the hills -- it can't be stopped. You can already hear the rumbling." "You are a statistical freak. There aren't enough like you in your population for us to be worried." 

She could feel the words pressing against her, forcing her to cover her ears more, but it didn't block out the sound. It was like trying to cover your ears to block out your own thoughts. She was able to remain standing only because she didn't know what the words meant. Cade wasn't so lucky. He fell to his knees. And as his knees impacted the pavement the ground rippled, like a drop of water falling into a pool. The ripples moved outward and got higher, and higher, the pavement moving in waves with it. When it hit the buildings they began to crumble. The silver highlights vanished and the city became red. 

More voices, and more voices and more voices. Cade pitched forward, hands pressing against the pavement, head lowering as if to accept defeat and another wave of ripples shot out around him. This one shattered the crumbling buildings, rendering them to dust. In the uprising dust of the newly leveled city, a new voice shown through. A voice so sweet, and so beautiful it could only be one person. Isabel learned that in the dreams, people look and sound how the person dreaming wants them to. Those they love, look and sound more beautiful. Almost unearthly. The voice had to be Hannah's. And for some reason no matter how loud all the other voices were, hers could be heard loud and clear. 

"He was a thief, you know. Downtown, twenty-second story. He was trying to open a safe. One hundred and eighty pounds. Alarm goes off, cops on the way. He carries the safe down twenty-two floors -- twenty-two floors, with a safe on his back. That's Cade Foster. Do what you want to me, but you'll never stop him. You'll create your own worst enemy. He'll hunt you down." 

He looked up when the voice started, and stared straight forward. The shaking stopped, and the blood highlights dulled slightly. A moment later another voice joined in. This one was a man's voice, "'On the seventh dawn of the seventh day, a twice-blessed man will roam the fields, doomed to shadows with his brethren, or savior to all who walk the ground.' Nostradamus was talking about you, Foster. You're the Twice-Blessed Man." 

The same voice added a moment later, after another round of screams from the voices that painted the city red, "Frankly, I haven't got much faith in the human race. But I've got faith in you, Foster. You can beat these bastards." 

There was a long moment, then he pushed himself up, until he was standing. The red highlights vanished all together, and the city slowly began to rebuild itself. Very slowly. It was only then that Isabel realized what the dream meant. The man was constantly in conflict with two parts of himself. One that believed whatever quest he was on was impossible, and another that believed he could do it. The dream just personified it. 

He turned around and saw her, blinking slightly at the sight of her. Then he approached her. She glanced down to check what she was wearing. Sometimes, very rarely, the dreamer could influence her attire. But this wasn't one of those times. She was still dressed in her pajamas. She stood there, watching him get closer to her, then when he was within normal speaking distance he looked thoughtful and asked, "Were you and your brother and friend the reason Joshua sent me here?" 

He thought she was just part of his dream. Perfect. Mom was the only one who ever thought she was really herself, besides the times she took peeks in Michael and Max's dreams, but they didn't count. And Maria didn't count either, because she told her. Isabel shrugged her shoulders slightly, "I don't know. What do you think?" 

Cade gave a small sigh, "I think I better protect you three until I know. One Acolyte already tried to kill that Michael friend of yours. Who knows how many the Assembly sent." 

"What's the Assembly?" she asked, trying not to sound too desperate for answers. 

He didn't seem to notice, and answered with one of those 'I've explained it a million times, why not once more even if just for a figment of my imagination' voices, "They're what the Gua leadership on Earth call themselves. They're the ones in charge of all their experiments. Testing the Earth for the Second and Third Wave..." 

"Wave of what?" 

"Invasion. War. Destruction. Like a tsunami they plan to wash over the world and destroy everything in their path. And what they don't destroy will be taken as their slaves." 

Isabel didn't like the sounds of this Gua. They sounded just like those stereotypical movie aliens who were completely one-sided and all they wanted to do went against the morals of the "earthlings." And of course the humans had to stop them. Maybe the man was just delusional. Thought he was the savior of the human race. "Do they all want to destroy the planet?" 

"Not the planet. The people that inhabit it. They need the world for themselves. Cause their world is dying." 

Recycled Independence Day plot. And about half the other Sci-fi movies involving aliens. "Let me guess, you think they crashed here back in 1947, huh?" 

"No. I don't think they've been here that long. Since the sixties, yes, but I don't know about the forties." he said thoughtfully. He probably thought he was talking to a manifested part of his own psyche, which wasn't uncommon in dreams as far as Isabel's experience told her. 

"So... if they didn't crash, who do you think did?" Curiosity forced her to ask. If he knew something about her people, getting him to talk in the dreams would be lots easier then in the waking world. 

He scratched at his head, the half-rebuilt city around him growing dull, then changing all together into a... a broken down trailer of all things. Standing outside one at least. Foster moved to sit down on a cooler and said in a pondering voice, "Good question. Eddie thinks it was just a government hoax to keep our minds away from the true problems. I always thought it was a Gua test, but it couldn't have been a Gua crash, cause they don't fly ships here. They use white holes..." He pondered a moment longer, then suddenly he stood up, "Of course! Why didn't I think of it before!? 'Survivors of slain ancient enemy.' The Gua were invaded a long time ago by another race and defeated, but they defeated them in return. What if -they're- the ones who landed here..." He looked all thoughtful. 

"What was that race?" Could that be her people he was talking about? Could it possibly be? 

There was another shifting in the background, but she paid no mind, keeping her attention on Foster as he responded, "I don't know. Joshua never named them. Could they be who I'm looking for? I could imagine the Gua would want them dead if they were survivors of their 'ancient enemy.'" Then he paused and looked at her, "Could you be that?" He wasn't really talking to her, more to himself, but she took a step back. 

This was not good. She didn't like him asking her that at all. Max had had a very good idea, but she messed up when she made herself seen. She should have hidden from sight and just watched the dream progress from a distance. She shouldn't have gotten involved personally. But now she was part of the dream and there was nothing she could do about it. As if to accent that fact, she suddenly felt something against the back of her head. Something round, and hard, and cold. She whirled around, just as she heard Cade yell, "No!" and found herself facing the black man from the "movie" pointing a gun in her face. There was a loud noise, and a flaring pain and the dream world went dark. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

She woke with a loud scream, trying to get a bearing on where she was. Hands were on her arms a second later and she was being held down. Isabel reacted without thought, heating her hands to boiling temperatures and slapping out at whatever was touching her, still partly in the dream. There was a sharp yell and the hands released her. It was only when someone splashed some water over her head that she came to her senses and realized she was awake. 

She gave her head a full shake, sending more then a few droplets of water flying and realized people were speaking to her. Max... her brother, "Izz? You alright?" 

Isabel ran a hand over her damp hair, realized someone had thrown a glass of water on her head, the glass she usually kept beside her bed. "Uh... yeah." She looked around and found Michael looking ruffled and angry with a red hand print on his cheek. Not just a hand print from flushed skin. It was a burn. Max had one too, on his shoulder, burnt straight through his shirt. "Uh.. sorry. How long was I out?" 

"About ten seconds." Michael said angrily, rubbing at his blistering cheek. "Damnit, Izz, could you lower the temperature next time?" 

She didn't respond to the second part, she was still mulling over the first part, "Really? Only that long?" 

Max answered this time, "Yeah. You laid down, your eyes flickered around twice, then the next thing we know you're jumping up screaming and trying to burn us to a crisp. I take the dream was... intense?" 

"To quote Deluca: Understatement." She sat up from the bed and went to Michael first. With a wave of her hand the burn vanished. She wasn't a gifted in the "healing" part as Max, but she could reverse her own damage well enough. Then she did the same to Max. "Sorry again. It was... incredibly strange. But I got a few answers." There was a pause, then she added, "I think." 

Chapter 5 The Dedicated 

November 18, 1999 

I didn't have time to write last night so I'm slipping in a few paragraphs before my shift at the Cafe. I'm starting to wonder more and more these days. The world is so much bigger then I ever imagined it could be, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. First finding out about Max and Michael and Isabel changed my life completely. Now only a month and a few weeks afterwards, my life is changing again. 

My friends are in trouble, and not because of Maria, or the Sheriff, or Kyle or even myself. They're in trouble because of some outsiders. Other outsiders I guess you could say. Yes, those kind of outsiders. Michael was shot yesterday by one of them. He's alright, of course, but I know how he must have felt. I was shot too after all, and even though the pain vanished soon after, I still felt it for what seemed hours at the time. I wonder if they feel pain like we do? I never really thought about that before. 

Does a cut on the hand feel the same to them as it does to us? Does food taste the same? Hypothetically, they could very well have many differences when compared to us, besides just their powers and cells. I just have never gotten around to asking them all the questions I want to. We've always had other things to worry about. Perhaps I should sit down with one of them and ask... 

"Ask us what?" 

Liz jumped at the voice behind her. She hadn't even heard someone come up to the roof... She closed the journal quickly and looked towards who said it. Michael, of course. How'd he get up here? Silly question. He'd gotten in her room before. The roof should have been easy for him. "Michael... what are you doing here?" 

"Your mom let me in." He said simply, moving to sit down on the small table she had out there she sometimes did her homework on. In fact, he was sitting on her geometry book. 

"You actually know how to use the door? I'm shocked." she wasn't really, but ever since the... events of a few weeks back they'd been getting a little more on the friendly side. None of the others had really noticed the change, cause around Max and Isabel and Maria they didn't talk much. Though after the trip down to Texas it seemed like Maria and him were also 'bonding' a little. "And I didn't think you knew my mom." 

Michael gave that half-smirk, something that the first time she'd seen it surprised her. It softened his face far too much to go unnoticed. "Hah-hah. You're starting to sound like Max." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "And I don't know your mom. Just told her I was one of your friends." 

"Oh." Liz replied. Though admittedly she was surprised her mom had let him in. "So... why are you here?" 

"Cause Max and Isabel are downstairs waiting for you to come to your shift. Neither wanted to come up here and get you, so I volunteered." Michael stood up for a moment and took the Geometry book out from under him. He looked at it for a moment and said, "So how much homework have I missed anyway?" 

"Max didn't want to come up here?" She didn't know what bothered her more. The fact that Max didn't want to, or the fact that Michael was actually acting concerned about his grades. Though she leaned more towards the former, and she never answered his question. 

Michael glanced up, as if realizing how she took that and corrected, "Isabel didn't want him to come up here. Cause Kyle's down there. If you and him walked in together... That whole tense situation again." He shrugged slightly and laid the geometry book down on the edge of the table. 

"Oh. Well, yeah. I can see how she wouldn't want that to happen..." She glanced down at her journal, knowing she had better put it into her hiding place before going down. She could finish her sentence later, if she remembered what she had been writing at least. "I'll be down in a minute or so. I have to... Uh..." 

"Hide your journal?" he inquired with a quirked eyebrow. 

"Uh, well, yeah.. I mean.. you know.." 

"Yeah, I know." Michael's grin widened as he stood and started towards the window back into her room, then said before he stepped through it, "Nice hiding place, by the way. The loose brick and all. Very 'X-Files.'" 

Liz stared after him as he vanished into her room. He -knew-?? How did he know?? Was he still reading her journal? She sighed and just put the journal in its place. She'd confront him about it later. For now she had to get in uniform and go downstairs and serve alien themes. 

On her way down, Liz remembered what Michael said. Kyle was down there. Sigh. Things with her 'ex' were still rather tense. But he was no longer there by the time she got down, which surprised her. Isabel and Max and Michael were all sitting at the first booth, which was in Maria's "territory" so she was their waitress for another good twenty minutes. They were eating burgers and fries. A Trekkie Special and two Will Smith's. Sitting on the table nearby was an already empty bottle of Tabasco Sauce. Originally, before she knew they were aliens, she always just figured Max and group really liked their food hot. Now... she put that question away with the others in the "Ask Later" file. 

She moved to sit down next to Michael, cause Max's sister had claimed his booth. "Hi." 

"Hey..." Max said, shifting a little in his side of the booth. 

There was a moment of awkward silence, until Michael thankfully broke it in a calm, emotionless voice, "Want some fries?" 

His fries were almost drenched red from all the Tabasco Sauce on them. She pointed at the empty bottle and said, "Not with that stuff on it." 

Michael smirked briefly and said, "What? You don't like Tabasco Sauce?" 

"I don't like -that- much, no. Little too hot for my tastes, thanks." 

"It's supposed to be hot?" 

It was only then that Liz realized she was bantering with Michael right in front of Isabel and Max, who were both frowning as they watched them. After the Michael retort Max said softly, "Well... I'm glad to see you two are getting along now." 

Was that a tinge of jealousy in his voice? It could have been. Liz looked at Max, trying to figure out what he was feeling, but whatever it was he was hiding it fairly well. He had no reason to be jealous. Michael was her friend, yeah, but that was it. Her heart belonged to the handsome alien who saved her life and opened her eyes to a larger world. And maybe if he was jealous of Michael he'd get his act together and admit he loved her too. And anyway, he seemed to like Maria. 

Isabel interrupted her thoughts, "That's all nice and well, but don't you have work, Liz?" 

"Five more minutes," Liz responded after checking her watch. She still didn't know how she felt about Isabel. She was Max's sister, but she always seemed to... not like her. Perhaps she was just being protective of her brother, in her own way. 

Maria appeared a moment later, "Hey... Glad you're here. It's getting pretty backed up. Agnus is being a bi...senile old goat again and taking breaks constantly." 

"You should tell my father." Liz said softly, though she knew it wouldn't do any good. Her dad liked Agnus too much to fire her, or even speak harshly to her. Probably came from the fact that she used to baby-sit him when he was a child. "Anyway, I'll be there to help you in a few minutes." 

"Thanks," and with that, Maria went to take the order of a new couple who'd just arrived. 

"So... why were you waiting for me?" 

The three aliens all looked at each other, then Max leaned forward and said, "We just wanted to tell you to watch out Cade Fo...Nichols. If he comes in, sneak off and call me so we can get here." 

Liz shrugged her shoulders absently. That was a simple enough request. "Sure. I can do that." 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Two hours after the three aliens left, and half an hour after Maria got off shift and went home, Cade Nichols walked in and sat at one of the tables. Liz saw him instantly and smiled slightly to herself, moving over to take his order since he was sitting at one of her tables. She could call the trio after she got his order. "How can I help you today, Dr. Nichols?" 

"Let's see..." He glanced over the menu and then made his order a second later. "I'll have... the Will Robinson Burger with Obi-Wan Rings and a Green Martian Shake." 

"Feeling adventurous today, aren't we?" 

"You could say that." He offered her a kind smile, and for a moment she forgot she was supposed to call Max and tell him the man was here. She was all the way to handing the order over before she remembered. She asked the other waitress to cover her for a few minutes while she made an important phone call, then went off outside to use the payphone. The payphone was less likely to have eavesdroppers, cause her mother was upstairs. 

She fished a quarter and a dime out and put in the coins, then dialed the number to Max's phone. A number she was coming familiar with lately. There was one ring, then a click and the answering machine picked it up. "Hi, it's Max...I'm not here right now, but please leave a message." 

Sigh. "Max. It's me... Liz. Just calling to tell you that a certain someone is here at the Cafe. I'll try your...." 

She was going to say his cell phone, and she meant to try that next, but she never got the chance. She was in the middle of her sentence when a hand went over her mouth, also knocking the phone from her hand with a muffled scream. She tried to struggle, but the man was too strong. With his free hand he hung up the phone, then turned her around and she got a look at him. He was tall, and dark skinned, short cropped black hair. And he had intense dark eyes, so dark she couldn't tell the difference between pupil and irises. His hand was still crushed over her mouth, so she couldn't voice her thoughts. Not that she could anyway. She was shell shocked, just like when the argument broke out in the Cafe. She couldn't move anymore. 

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" someone else said nearby. Liz moved as much as she could but could only see the profile of the speaker. It was a man though, with an accent that she couldn't place. 

"Yes." the man holding her said. "They'll come to get her. It's in their nature." Without another word, Liz felt a sharp sting in her upper left arm and the awareness faded. 

Chapter 6 The Acolyte 

After ten minutes, Cade realized something was wrong. His waitress, the petite brunette named Liz didn't come back. Instead a woman in the same outfit, but much older, in her mid-twenties, brought his food. He inquired on where the girl who was serving him went and she said that she'd gone off to run a quick errand, and it was odd that she was taking so long. In the time it took him to finish his meal, she still had not returned. 

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed up Eddie's number -- they'd stopped using the bugs after the Evans boy spotted them. "Eddie," Cade said after he heard the click which indicated connection. "Look, something's going on down here. I'm not exactly sure what. Could you check the hospitals? Make sure none of... -them- got checked in lately?" He was trying to think of reasons the girl would leave on the excuse of an 'errand.' And reasons she wouldn't come back. Even if paranoia wasn't a contagious disease, it had been rubbing off on him lately. 

"Just a minute, Foster." Eddie didn't sound particularly happy, but that wasn't exactly a surprise. After a minute the voice returned, "Alright, nothing coming up on any of them." 

Sigh. Alright. Looks like he would have to find her the hard way, and hope nothing happened to her. She seemed like a very nice girl. The Gua weren't above stepping on a nice girl to get what they wanted. "Damnit. She's just a kid. Why can't those bastards pick on someone their own size?" He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud. 

"So I'm guessing you lost track of one of the kids and you think they're in trouble? Was it the blonde one you dreamed about last night?" 

"No. It wasn't the blonde. And I should have never told you about that." 

"Hey, your tastes are your own problem, man. But I still say she's too young for you." 

Rolling his eyes, Cade gave a small sigh. He really shouldn't have told Eddie about his dream. It was just a dream. It didn't mean anything. But seeing Joshua appear behind her, and then her vanish with a loud scream that woke him up was a little intense, even for him. He certainly wasn't attracted to her in the way Eddie kept implying, but it had bothered him. Well, not too attracted at least. 

He stood up and paid for his meal, still holding the phone as he added, "So did you get any information on our friend at the school?" Meaning the 'guidance counselor'/FBI agent. 

"Oh, yes. I did some serious digging. Though I only came up with a few more things. She's on assignment in Roswell, sending encrypted emails to an office in Phoenix daily. I was able to intercept some and decrypt them, but the information is sketchy at best. She seems to be following the girl, Parker, around though. And the Evans kids have mentions too. But like I said, it was sketchy at best. She didn't go into details in any of them" 

The FBI was following Liz Parker? And the Gua were apparently after her friends. "I smell a conspiracy." Cade added as he walked out the doors of the Cafe. 

"You're in Roswell, Foster." 

"Conspiracy Capital?" 

"That D.C. man, but Roswell's probably in the top five." 

"Find out why she's trailing Parker. Get back to me when yo..." But he didn't finish his sentence, much less the word. Someone pulled the phone out of his hand. He hadn't heard anyone get close enough to do that, and he was very good with his senses. He wasn't one of the best thieves in Chicago history because he had nothing better to do on Friday nights. 

It was Evans. The boy. Max. Who he'd spent almost an hour talking with just the day before. And he looked seething with anger, his facial expressions sharper, his eyes darker. He pushed the button to terminate the call absently before he said anything. "Who's trailing Liz? And where is she?" 

His voice carried barely held back anger. This was a completely different Max Evans then the one Cade'd met earlier. "Did something happen to her?" 

"You know good and well...!" Behind Max, his sister appeared, laying a hand on his arm as if in an attempt to calm him down. It worked a little. His gaze softened and he trailed off with his barely contained yell. After a breath he continued, "Yes, we have reason to believe something did happen to her. Now who is trailing her?" There was the anger again. It was almost frightening. Which was strange. His original appraisal of the boy had him as fairly harmless. The type to literally catch a fly and let it go out a window instead of swatting it. 

Taking in a slow breath, Cade tried to reassess the boy and figure out what he could be capable of at this time. He didn't want to get into a fight over an FBI Agent after all. Best thing to do was probably tell the truth. Keep on his good side. "Your friend has an FBI Agent following her around. I'm trying to find out why, but since you terminated my phone conversation I will have to wait until later to find out." 

"Why Liz?" another voice came from behind him. It was that of the short cropped blond haired girl, Maria. 

"That's what I was hoping to find out." Cade responded honestly, trying to keep everyone calm. Though deep down he was probably almost as worried as they were about what might have happened to the Parker girl. Acolytes? FBI? Or maybe she just remembered something she had to do. It didn't always have to be some huge conspiracy. Eddie would have laughed if he had told him that. Everything was a huge conspiracy to Eddie. 

The Evans boy waved the phone in his hand, "Who's on the other end of this? And how do you know an FBI agent is following Liz? Are you FBI?" 

He grinned slightly, "No. I'm a little undressed to be an Agent. And the man on the other end is a good friend of mine. A friend who happens to know a lot about computers." 

Another voice joined in, Isabel's, the girl who was in his dreams last night, "So who are you really? We know you're not Kincaid Nichols." 

Well, there went that cover. It usually didn't take long for someone to figure out something about his cover wasn't kosher. As long as it wasn't a police officer or someone who would turn him into the police he usually just let it go where it went. No use fighting by trying to hide behind an already broken id. He glanced around, to take note of all those present. The Evans kids were on one side of him. Maria was on the other, and the Guerin boy had joined to stand behind her. 

No one else within earshot, but he wasn't taking any chances. This was a small town after all. He motioned towards the alley, indicating that he wanted to take the conversation a distance away from the Crashdown and the main street, and without waiting for any response, he started down into the alley. Cade stopped near a garbage can and turned around, facing the kids who had followed him. "Alright, you are right. I'm not Kincaid Nichols. My name is Cade Foster. And I'm not a parapsychologist. I used to work for a security company. I sold locks and advanced security systems to businesses." 

"'Used to'?" Maria asked from where she stood a foot or so to the side of the other three, who stood closer together. 

"It's a long story, but I lost my job. I lost everything. My money, my wife, most would even say my sanity, but I'm not too sure about that part yet." 

There was a silence for a minute, then the tall blonde, model looking young woman said simply, "Because of the Gua." 

He blinked slightly. Suspicions were being confirmed. These kids knew something. How much was the question... Had they been part of an experiment like himself? But then why did Michael look so confused at the Acolyte encounter? Cade shook the thoughts from his head. He could ponder it over later. For now he might as well get some answers, "The Gua, yes. How do you..." but the question never got finished, because behind the four teens, in the start of the alley, a figure appeared. The light was still enough that the figure was instantly recognizable. 

What was Joshua doing here? Cade thought as he saw the well known tall dark skinned Acolyte assassin. Then suddenly it hit him. Of course. For Joshua to be able to warn him about the Acolytes, he must have been told of the mission, and the Gua didn't seem the type to tell their plans to those who were not a part of it. 

The teens -- minus Maria -- noticed his eyes look past them, and turned almost as one. Maria caught on a moment later and looked as well. The first reaction any of them made came from Isabel, she gasped and took a step backward. Cade instantly moved forward, grabbing the girl and putting her behind him. Nothing bad was going to happen to these teens on his watch. "What are you doing here, Joshua?" 

"If you have not figured that out by now, Foster, I don't see why I should tell you." 

"Give me one reason not to rid the Earth of one more of you?" It was a weak threat, and one that he likely wouldn't go through with, and Cade knew that he probably knew that. 

But the response he gave was enough of a reason. Joshua raised his hand, and a pendant on a necklace dangled from his palm. Not a very nice pendant, a strange symbol on it. Shaped like a spiral. The bottom was even broken off. Hardly worth a second glance. But a whisper behind him gave voice to the reason. "Liz. I let Liz keep that pendant." 

It was Max's voice, and he sounded almost breathless. Like the air was torn out of him. 

"That's a good reason." Cade said softly, sighing inwardly. He had to remain calm. Violence would not diffuse this situation. But it was so tempting just to punch the Gua before him. "So I assume you want a trade for her? What is it this time? Another communication recording on a disk?" 

"No. Meet with me. She has not been harmed, and she will remain so, as long as you meet with me." He paused, looking them over, them motioned in the direction of Maria, "Except her." 

"Oh no you don't. I am like so going." Maria said. 

At the same time Michael and Cade turned towards her and started to tell her that it would be best if she stayed. They used different words, but they didn't get further then the first few syllables because the hyper blonde girl erupted. 

"She is my best friend! If you try to make me stay here then I'll just like call the police and give them a description of the kidnapper." Maria looked toward Joshua. "You can't stop me from going. I'll like follow. -And- call the police. I got a phone you know. And a car. Well, actually it's my mom's car, but close enough." She was talking so fast no one else could get a word in, not even Joshua. 

When she finally stopped for air, Michael relented, "If it will shut you up, then come along. Maybe I can talk them into killing you first. God knows it would make the world a better place." 

"Ech! You... jerk! I hope they dissect you." 

"Will you two -please- stop it?" Isabel yelled from behind Cade, annoyed by the sound in her voice. 

"Interesting new friends you've made, Foster." Joshua said in the newly found silence. "There's an old book store on East Kerr Street. 2801B. Meet me there in an hour." He tossed the necklace in their direction, and Max caught it. A second later the Acolyte was gone again. 

Chapter 7 Sole Survivors 

He could feel her impression on the pendant in his hand. Or maybe it was just his imagination. Max could barely breathe, much less think about what was going on around him. He didn't even hear what Maria and Michael were yelling about, or Isabel. Or what the man had said before he threw the pendant. He only saw the pendant and reflexively caught it. All that really registered was that Liz was in trouble. He would do anything to make sure she remained unharmed. Anything at all. If the man wanted him, then he could have him. As long as Liz was safe. Liz was all that mattered. If anything happened to her... 

"Max? Max?" 

He barely heard the voice from across a void which seemed vaster then space. Isabel was trying to pull him back into the present, but it wasn't working. All he could see and feel was the impression left on the pendant. Liz. She had been scared when they took her. The last thing she felt was a sharp sting in her arm, then consciousness left her. Words flooded his mind as well. Something about nature. His nature. 

"Max!" 

The voice was louder this time, more distinct, closer. He felt a hand against his shoulder distantly. Though it didn't really feel like his shoulder. It was like his entire body had fallen asleep. Just an impression of a hand. Where was she? Liz... would they hurt her even if he gave them everything they wanted? Would they let her go? Or would they just kill her too... Max felt his mind groping outward, trying to leave the frame of his body and search her out. Distantly he felt his body crumple to the ground, someone catch him and lay him down, but he paid no mind to it. Liz. Liz was all that mattered. 

Liz? He could find her. He knew he could. His mind drifted, following the trace of her presence. He found himself at a phone. A payphone. Emotions there were a mix of fear and shock. It was where Liz was taken. He continued, following the light trace left behind. So light, and so faint, because she had been unconscious. It led to the road, where they must have loaded her into a car, because the trail got even fainter then before. He could barely follow it. Determination kept him going. He had to find her. 

Down the street. Right at the intersection. Five blocks. Left. Two more. There. A motel. Room 14B. The door didn't hinder him, he just drifted right through it. Two people sat around. Two men. One a shorter red headed man, the other a taller dark haired man. Neither was the man he noticed following them on the way down to Texas. Small relief there. Liz? There she was. Laying in the bed, arms bound, eyes blindfolded, unconscious. 

He spoke, or the equivalent of speaking in this place he was in, likely somewhere between the dream world and the real world. "Liz? Can you hear me?" 

No response. 

"Liz? Liz, please. Answer me. Give me some sign that you're all right." The pain in his "voice" was obvious, even to himself. "Liz, please..." 

He wanted an answer, a response. Of any kind. A twitch of her mouth would be enough. But he didn't really expect to get one. She wasn't his kind, there was no guarantee that she could even here him in this realm of existence. So when a response came, he admittedly was surprised. 

"Max?" Her lips didn't move, but the voice was a plain as anything else. 

He didn't hesitate to reassure her. He would feel calmer if she felt safe. If she knew he would never let anything happen to her. Ever. "We're going to get you out, Liz. I promise. Don't be afraid..." 

"I... I'm not afraid." It was a brave lie, innocent, and sweet. But a lie none-the-less. She couldn't lie to him here. He could feel her emotions as if they were a scent in the air. She was afraid. But she was also happy. Happy that he was worried about her? 

Whatever she was happy about, Max couldn't ponder it much longer, because something grabbed onto him. A presence so radiant and strong that it dwarfed everything else by comparison. It pulled on his mental presence so hard that he found himself back inside his body before he even figured out who the presence had been. 

His eyes opened wide, his lungs took in a deep breath, as if they hadn't taken one for a while, and he noticed Isabel's face close to his. Very close. Her forehead was touching his. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, brown eyes locked, then she pulled back and said in an angry voice, "Don't you -ever- do that again." 

Michael was kneeling beside him, "You had us worried, Maximillian." and for a change, he actually had the sound in his voice. 

He took in slow breaths, trying to regain his standing in the physical world. Isabel pulled back even more and stood up, brushing invisible dust off her designer outfit. Cade and Maria were standing off to the side, watching. Whatever Isabel had done to bring him back, he hoped it wasn't too... obvious. He still didn't quite know if he trusted Cade. 

Once he was sure everything was alright, all his body parts were working, though his legs were a tingling, as if the blood had been cut off for a few minutes, he finally said something, "I... sorry." He looked around again, and noticed the man, Joshua as Cade had named him, was nowhere in sight. He didn't notice him leaving. But then everything before him went blurry almost as soon as he realized the man had Liz. "Where'd he go?" 

"He left. Told us to meet him at the old book store on Kerr Street that was closed a few months ago." Maria jumped in quickly, answering before any of the others could in her usual fast and high-strung voice. 

Isabel interrupted before the smaller girl could add more, "He wanted us to meet him there in an hour, but now it's more like fifteen minutes." 

Max blinked. Fifteen minutes? He didn't get to voice the question, Michael answered it, "Yes, you were out that long. Cade was getting ready to drag you to the hospital." 

As if in defense of himself, Cade mentioned absently, "It was a suggestion." 

"And a bad one, okay?" Maria said softly. "I mean like he's not even..." Before she got much further though, Isabel gave her a look that shut her up and made her switch what she was saying. "...sick really. Just worried about Lizzy is all. We all are, right? But Cade says she'll be alright. The Joshua person isn't one to like go back on his word." 

"But he's likely going to want to trade for her," Michael added in during the pause. "Which might mean..." He waved a hand around, but Max knew what the gesture meant. Us, for her. Max couldn't drag Michael and Isabel into this... 

"I'll go there alone. You two, leave town." He would do anything for Liz, but he couldn't drag his sister and best friend down with him. 

"No way, Max." Isabel said, putting her hands on her hips in a stubborn expression, "I said it before, and I'll damn well say it again. I am -not- leaving without you. Ever. If he wants us, then he's not going to stop till he gets us. All of us." 

And from where he was sitting beside him, Michael added, "Where you go, we go." 

Blink. Max couldn't believe what was happening here. He expected Isabel to say that, but... Michael? Mr. "Don't Get In Too Deep?" Were they saying they wanted to risk their lives for Liz? No. They were probably just trying to talk him into leaving with them. That was it. But they must know he would never leave Liz. If the spaceship home landed tomorrow, he doubted that he would be able to hop on it. If it would protect Liz, and keep her safe, he could. But if she were in danger if he left, he couldn't. "What are you guys saying?" 

"They're saying, in their Czechoslovakian-like way, that we're all going into that building with you." Maria added in, moving closer and kneeling down on the other side of him. "Liz is my best friend. I'll do anything to protect her. Even agree with this badly dressed, spiky haired, Tabasco breathed, space-boy." 

"She may not be my best friend, but she's important to you, Max." Isabel offered. It sounded lame beside Maria's, but it was an attempt, which from his sister was about all one could expect when the subject was Liz Parker. 

They all looked at Michael, and he gave a slight shrug, "Like I said, where you go, we go." Then he smirked and added, "Besides, I'm kind of growing used to her myself." 

A voice outside their group broke through Max's amazement at his friends words, "I'll be going as well." It was Cade Foster. He expected Michael or Isabel to argue, but neither did. While he was out of his body -- literally -- they must have had an interesting talk. 

And that was how they all ended up in front of the old closed book store on Kerr street a dozen or so minutes later. 

The windows were dark, the door was locked. Instantly Max said, "I'll handle the lock." but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he saw Cade move forward, pull something out of his pocket and play with the lock a second. The door was open very quickly. 

It was Michael who commented, "Nice little hobby you got there. Anything else up your sleeve?" 

"A few," was all Cade said in response, motioning them to enter. Max entered first, looking around for a light switch as he went. Cade followed behind him, then Michael, then Maria, and last Isabel, closing the door behind her and plunging the room into near darkness. 

Suddenly there was a grumble behind him, and a soft, "Stop grabbing me." It was Michael. 

A second later Maria's distinct voice called out, "I.. I like can't see. Somebody find the light switch, please." 

A small light came on behind him, and Max turned, hoping it wasn't Isabel or Michael, and it wasn't. It was Cade, holding a small handheld flashlight. "Told you I had a few more up my sleeve." the older man said with a small grin, shadows casting across his face. "Joshua? You here?" He raised his voice a little louder. 

The response came in a door opening to one of the back rooms. The owners office. Or old office. The only room in the store without windows. Perfect for a meeting away from eavesdroppers. Max motioned towards it, "There." 

A moment later they'd all piled in the office. The tall dark man was standing in the corner, hands folded at his waist. Liz was there as well. The sight of her sent Max's mind soaring with relief. She looked good. Cade closed the door behind him, and flicked on the light switch. Liz was not blind folded, or gagged, or even tied up. She was just sitting in a chair, eyes open, looking from one to the other. He couldn't stop himself from asking, "Liz, you okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine. A little tired, but fine." She looked a lot better then he was expecting. No bruises or cuts. Her waitress uniform was a little wrinkled, and her hair a little messed up, but she looked good. 

"Side effect of the drug we gave her, unfortunately. She'll be fine in a few hours," the man spoke. 

"Why were you and the others sent here, Joshua?" Cade asked. Max wasn't really paying attention though. He moved across the room to stand next to Liz, taking her hand in his. He wanted to feel her, make sure she was real. 

The answer to Cade's question drifted distantly into his mind, "We were sent to find those who were suspected to be survivors of the crash that happened in this area in 1947. Then attest on whether or not they were a threat to our presence here, and if they were, to eliminate the threat." 

Before anyone else could get a word in, Cade asked his question, "So the Gua crashed here back in '47?" 

"No. Not the Gua. The ancestors of the Kahmezari." The word sounded... known... Like a memory from a dream. Like the symbol on the pendant. Like the writing in the cave. 

Michael whispered the word softly, under his breath, almost sounded in awe. The sheer emotion in his voice was enough to make Max turn to look at his friend. The key. The dome. The pendant. River Dog. None of them had given them anything like this. Kahmezari. The name of their species. Their kind. Their family. -Their- name. 

"I told you about them, Foster. Back before we were the Gua, generations before we looked towards your Earth. The Kahmezari were as far above us, as we are above you." 

Isabel whispered distantly, almost inaudible, "'Were?'" 

But Joshua kept talking, "They came to our planet. They invaded us, defeated us, broke us down until we were nothing but servants to their every whim. In a way their conquering of us gave us something we never had before then, or so the story goes. We adapted our technology to match theirs, and we rose up, behind a man who gave us our name. The Gua. The Power to Overcome. And behind him, as one force, we crushed the Kahmezari. Hunted them down and destroyed them." 

The words stung, but Max knew not half as badly as they stung in Michael's mind. The emotions coming from him were almost palpable. It was as if all his hopes, all his dreams were crushed down in one paragraph. He slumped against the wall, closing his eyes, his head tilting backward. Distantly, through the pain coming from his friend, Max saw Maria move towards him, like she had in the dome. When she told him to try the key again. She looked completely calm. Calm and determined. She reached up and laid a hand on his chest gently, and to Max's amazement, the emotions coming from Michael calmed down. Instead of a raging hurricane they were now taken down to a tropical storm. 

Isabel must have felt what was coming from Michael, cause she seemed almost breathless, and her face was crumpled in the fashion it was when she was near tears. A state she rarely allowed herself to get close to in front of people. 

Liz was the one who spoke, squeezing his hand as she did, "But some must have gotten away if there was a crash." 

The man gave a nod, face remaining stoic and emotionless, as if he was not watching a young man's anchor in the world being torn into splinters, "A few did escape. Aboard ships. That was the one technology of theirs that we never did master until after they were gone. We know of at least eight that escaped. We tracked down six of them. Including the one that made it here. That necklace, the mark on it. Each ship had a destination. The ship that crashed here was heading towards what you call the Milky Way Galaxy. Which as you might know, is a Spiral Galaxy. From the outside, it would look similar to that symbol." 

Beside him, Liz leaned her head back and whispered, "Of course. How could I be so stupid?" 

"You tracked their ship here?" Cade asked, breaking his silence. 

"Yes. In some ways, we never would have found this planet if it wasn't for that ship." 

"And when you bastards found this place you just couldn't resist completing the circle, could you? You were conquered and taken over, now you do the same in return." Cade was angry, but Max couldn't feel it. All of Michael's emotions still over-ran everything else. 

"Our planet is dying, Foster. We will die with it if we don't expand. The ship that crashed here just gave us the opportunity." 

"What happened to the others on the ship?" Max asked, finally able to speak. He knew his voice would sound tired, and pained. But under the ravaging of Michael's intense emotions, it was only to be expected. 

"We hunted them down." 

Max's closed his eyes, a memory running into his mind. River Dog. He'd said that 'the man' was afraid 'they' would kill him. That 'they' were close to finding him. He'd always assumed it was the government. "It was you. He was afraid of you." 

"We thought we'd found them all. But we were wrong. Our cloning technology is far more advanced then there's ever was. Their human bodies are just masks. On the inside, they were completely alien. A drop of blood and you would know they weren't human. We suspected they'd ejected some incubation pods with children in them, we even found one in '75, but we figured all of them failed, like that one. But yours didn't. You three are the sole survivors of your species." 

Max opened his mouth, to ask what happens know, but the words didn't make it past his lips. A force so strong that it dwarfed that of the hurricane of emotions from before swept through the entire room. Maria flew backwards, taking the brunt of the shockwave, flying into Cade, who fell down into a heep as well. Isabel stumbled, even Joshua swayed slightly. When it hit Max, he slammed against the wall hard. Liz yelled out as she impacted beside him. Michael's powers were raging out of control. And no surprise, considering the emotions that had been building up inside him. He let out a ragged wail and them slammed through the door, leaving a deep bulge in it, and a blackened heat marks along the impression and ran out of the room. Isabel was the first one to recover and she ran out after him. 

Chapter Eight In Shadows 

It took all her energy to keep up with Michael. He was running so fast, at what most humans would consider full-sprint. But to them it was a normal running speed. They were naturally faster then humans, but Isabel Evans never did like running, even if it didn't take half as much out of her as a little dream-walk. High heeled boots probably had something to do with it. She only followed because she knew Michael was about to snap. 

The single thread he'd been holding onto all these years, that there might be someone coming to get him, that he would be able to go home... the thread was gone, and he was falling. And he needed someone to catch him before he did something stupid. Something that Max wouldn't be able to clean up afterwards. And though she usually wouldn't bother getting her hands dirty on something such as this, she knew it would take the others a while to follow. 

At least Maria was hurt. She took the brunt of Michael's energy discharge, cause she was touching him when it happened. Max would help her. If that Joshua person didn't kill them all like his species did the rest of them... But Isabel shoved that out of her mind. She had to stop Michael. "Michael!" she yelled, still running. Her feet were starting to hurt. Damn heels. 

He was running towards the edge of the city. The night sky above was clouded over, as if in echo of his emotions. "Damn it all to hell. Michael, STOP!" she yelled again, her ankles starting to really ache with all this running. Heels were not made for full sprints, that's for sure. Surprisingly, he actually stopped. 

The emotions radiating from him were a myriad of intensities. Anger. Sorrow. Pain. Hatred. Loneliness. They made the air thick around him. She could even taste the emotions when she stopped a few feet away from him and gasped for breath. It was a bitter, salty taste. In the dome the emotions coming from him had been intense, but this was twice that. Ten times that. But unlike in the dome, when the emotions were plain in his face and stance, he just stood there, body tense and ridged, face stern but rather emotionless. The only visible indicator of his current emotional stress was his eyes. 

"Michael... I know how you feel..." 

But all that line did was throw fuel on the fire. The emotions raged and he spun to face her, yelling harshly, "How could you possibly know how I feel, Isabel!?" 

"Because you're broadcasting you're emotions like radio waves! I wouldn't be surprised if they could feel them in Santa Fe!" It wasn't completely false. It was likely he was broadcasting his emotions to everyone, and not just the rest of the alien trio who would have felt them anyway. Maria seemed to have felt them in the room back there. "They were my family too, you know!?" 

More fuel. She really needed to take Max's advice on how to calm Michael down in these situations. But then again nothing like this had ever happened before. Nothing this... intense. Nothing that so effected him. "You're FAMILY!? You didn't even know them! _Max_ is your family. The _EVANS_ are your family!" He stopped yelling, and took a step backwards. His eyes were burning with the anger that his emotional aura was giving off. "Get. The. Hell. Away. From. Me." he spoke each word separately, adding emphasis on all. 

She wanted to say that he was her family too. Because he -was-. He was her brother's best friend, her friend since she was a child. Her only other link to her alien heritage besides Max. Though she never would have admitted it before, he was an essential part of their trinity. He was the passionate one. In terms of the fact that he was almost always acted on his emotions, even if he didn't always show them. On the moment. The one in search of something. The one with a goal. The one who took risks, who didn't want to wait. Max was the passive one of the three. He usually sided with whoever was with him at the time. Well, passive as far as everything -except- Liz Parker was concerned. And she didn't really know where she fit in. But then when did a person really know themselves? "Michael, you're my..." but she didn't get to finish. 

The air in front of her heated, then exploded. Light flashed through the world, a great strobe light shinning across the sky. She felt an impact, then the world seemed to go numb. When she could move again she pushed herself up. Somehow Michael had thrown her a good fifty feet and into the windshield of a car. The glass was broken in a fine spiderweb-like way around where she hit it. Isabel quickly got off the car and scanned for Michael. No where in sight. She didn't waste a second as she hurried back to the book store on Kerr street. No one seemed to have seen what had happened, and she didn't want to be around when someone came out to investigate the flash of light. It would likely get chalked up as lightning. The sky was cloudy after all. 

When she made it back to the bookstore and stumbled into the windowless room, everyone was still there, except Joshua. He was gone. And Max was in one piece. Relief washed over her, even as everyone gasped at her entrance. "Oh my God. What happened?" It was Liz who spoke. 

Isabel looked down at herself. Her clothes where burnt, her hair was too. She imagined that her face must be dark with the after-effects of the heated flash. She moved to slump down against the wall, and responded simply, "Michael's snapped." 

Sitting up from where she was still laying on the floor, Maria asked with an intensely worried expression and voice, "Is he okay? I mean... he's like gonna be alright... right?" 

"What do you mean 'snapped,' Izz?" Max asked from where he was kneeling beside Maria. 

She didn't bother answering the petite blonde's question. She wouldn't like the answer she had to give anyway, so she answered her brother's, "I mean -snapped- Max. He attacked me. Threw me a about hundred feet," she knew she was exaggerating, but she didn't care, "into a car, Max. The windshield of a -car-. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw the flash of light all the way over here." She looked down at her designer outfit, "Not to mention he ruined a good hundred dollar outfit." Well, technically it wasn't ruined. She ran her hand across her face and down her body, cleaning off the smoke burns and repairing the burnt material. Cade watched with an interested raised eyebrow. He already knew enough about them from all Joshua told. Who cares if he saw her alter a little molecular structure? 

Thinking of which... "Where'd the weird guy run off to?" 

Max answered calmly, "He let us go. He doesn't think that we're a threat, and he thinks it's a shame to kill off the last of a species. Apparently he doesn't agree with most of the things his species is doing here. 'Sympathetic to the cause' as Foster here likes to say." 

At the mention of his name, Foster jumped in and said, "He's going to go back to the Assembly and say that you're not a threat. You have no memory of your species, and your powers are limited to your human shells." 

"That was nice of him..." Isabel mumbled under her breath, but then she added, "One problem though. Michael. He's on a rampage. If there are others, they're going to probably see him. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they already felt him. He was broadcasting on broadband out there. Even Maria felt him, didn't you?" she motioned towards Maria. 

The girl looked shocked at the sudden attention as everyone looked at her. It took her a long moment to respond in a soft hesitant voice, "I.. Yeah. I... I can still feel him, actually." 

Liz raised a hand slightly and added, "I didn't feel anything except that ... wind ... that threw me against the wall." 

It was Cade who spoke on the subject, "I don't understand these.. powers you three have, but it might have something to do with the fact she was closest to him during the whole thing." 

That was probably the reason. She was touching him when his emotions exploded full force. Probably made her more sensitive to them then most. "Either way, we better split up and look for him." 

Before they set out, Cade gave them all pointers. "If you happen to see a Gua, they're most recognizable by the fact that their human clones sometimes meld to show the true form of their wearers. It's like a..." 

"A glowing red ripple showing an impression under it?" Liz asked. "Yeah, Michael explained it to us." 

"Well if you see one, and you have no other choice but to fight, aim for a mortal wound if you can. A stab through the heart or deep in the stomach would be a good way to go. They die just as easily as humans as long as you get them in one shot. Otherwise they will heal very quickly." 

With the pointers on how to kill an Acolyte, the four teenagers and one adult split up and set out to look. Liz and Maria insisted on not being put with a partner. Five looking in different places had better chances then three groups. They would call if they found him. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

On the outskirts of the city, Michael Guerin sat in the desert looking up at the sky. The clouds had parted in a few places, enough to catch sight of a few stars. There were times when he was younger he would come out here and watch the sky. Watch and wait. Wait for the sign of a ship coming back for them. Look for a star that tugged on his memory. Anything that would hint at home. Now, he just looked because... he didn't know why. To look back maybe. He had no hope. He had nothing to wait for. There was no home for him. Nowhere. Not here, not there. Nowhere. He never felt so alone before in his entire life. And that was a stretch, because he'd always been alone. Alone, except for the dream of home. Of the possibility of a family waiting for him. Of somewhere where he would be loved, and... Damn it all. It was a stupid dream. A futile dream. 

And a dream he'd only shared with one other person. Because she shared the same dream as he. 

No! Don't think of Maria. He yelled at himself mentally. But it was too late. She flooded his mind instantly. Her skin, her lips, her hair, the smell of those oils she so liked... Damn it. Out! he told the image. He was alone. He didn't need the dream. He didn't need Isabel. He didn't need Max. And he sure as hell did not need Maria Deluca. She was annoying. A pest. A fickle, hyper, weird girl. And a good kisser. 

Damn. It. All. What in the hell was wrong with him? His hopes were shattered, his life was torn to pieces, his powers had gone nuts back there with Isabel, and all he could think about was Maria. He stood up and started pacing around. He had to go somewhere. He had to get away. Away from Roswell. Away from... from -her-. He'd lost everything else. He'd lose her too. Better to lose her voluntarily. But he had no place to go now. 

The only essay assignment he remembered actually writing, was back freshman year. It was an essay for English class. The teacher choose a simple subject. "Where is your life headed?" He almost didn't write that one either. But the night it was due, he couldn't sleep, and Max was busy on the final copy of his and wouldn't let him in, so he sat up and wrote the essay. It was simple. The key line though, was this: "There's no where left to go but up." and he meant it. Up. Into the sky. Into space. Home. He never let Max or Isabel read the essay. They probably would have yelled at him about it. But he got an A on it. He usually got an A on the work he actually -did-. Part of having advanced brain functions. Advanced at least when compared to that of a normal teenage boy. 

He could no longer go up. Gravity, and reality had taken hold. There was no one up there. No one. And no one down here either. It was just him. Him, and a void. A shadowy void, enveloping him. Some might find the thought comforting. Instead, he just found it... numbing. Perhaps it was the fact that he was encased by a sense of numbness that caused him to get caught off guard for the second time in the last two days. 

When an arm grabbed him, he reacted. Michael was never good with going over options, he often just reacted to things. Right then, his mind was still suffering from the over-run of emotions coursing through him. The numbness only shut them off from him consciously. They were still there. So at the rough handling he acted on the first thought. It was an attack on him. And he counter-attacked. 

But his counter-attack lasted about two seconds. Something grabbed him by the neck, there was a sharp sting, and he suddenly felt overcome with weakness. They'd drugged him. With what was the question. He tried to lash out with his powers, but he couldn't. 

"Subject is rendered harmless." a voice said from beside him. 

Harmless? We'll see about that. He may not be able to use his powers, he never was good at them anyway, but no one said he couldn't use his fists. But when Michael went to punch the closest man, a red haired shorter man -- about Kyle's height -- he felt like his muscles had turned to jelly. They just weren't working right. For his effort at a punch, he got shoved down to the ground, hard. 

"How long will it work?" a different voice said, from the man who shoved him down. 

"About an hour." 

Then you'll be dead in about an hour, Michael thought wickedly, and tried to voice it, but that's when he realized nothing about his body seemed to be working right. He could barely move his mouth, and his tongue felt like foreign object. They were picking him up now. He tried to move. Throw his weight around to make them off balance, but he couldn't even get much more then a few twitches. It was like his body was wrapped up in a blanket. No... in a spider's web. 

Oh God... He was wrong. He did need Max. And Isabel. And Liz. And hell, even Maria. Especially Maria. He called out for her in his mind, but he knew she wouldn't hear. They'd somehow cut him off from his powers, his very body. It was like he was ... oh God. It was like that movie, Awakenings, with Robin Williams. That movie always had bothered him... He was aware, he knew what was going on. He could see, hear, even feel. But he couldn't move. He couldn't make any response. If he had been alone before... that was nothing in comparison. He couldn't even close his eyes and block out the sights around him. The only movements were reflexive blinking and breathing. 

They talked some more, and he heard them, but his mind didn't translate the words. His mind was a jumble of mental screams. He couldn't stand this. Nothing was worse. He... he... he was losing his mind. He lost his hopes, his dreams, his mind might as well follow. He should have listened to Isabel. But no, he'd ran off and done something stupid. And Max wouldn't come along to bail him out this time... Somehow, deep down, he knew that. No. Max wouldn't come to clean up his mess. Not this time. 

Chapter Nine Fickle Aroma 

It was those vibes that Maria Deluca followed. The others split off to check Michael's usual haunts. Places they knew he went to when he was upset. Max and Isabel were probably wiggling their noses and doing whatever it was they did exactly to find him. But she just followed those vibes. It was the best word she had to describe them. Vibes. She'd felt them in the motel room, very briefly. She'd felt them in the dome. Like she said to Liz. Michael was a real vibrator. But she like never imagined she'd be able to use them for anything important, or the fact that she'd be able to feel him when he wasn't even in the same room with her or anything. But then he wasn't exactly human, so the normal scope of human-things didn't exactly go into play when he was involved. 

Anyway, she was following those really weird vibes. They had Michael written all over them. Tabasco sauce and dark broodingness. Spiky hair. Annoying sense of humor. The works. It practically rang with his presence. And Michael had one hell of a presence. He always had, even before she found out about the whole E.T. thing. The few times he would actually come to class it was hard to ignore him. He like drew attention. Of course he was just a really weird guy to her back then. \\Kinda cute... but weird. Definitely weird. Ok, well he's still weird. Most definitely still weird. Even more weird, sure, cause now he's totally like a brooding-reckless-infuriating-not-as-funny Mork. Not to mention the criminal tendencies, and the fact that he needs to learn how to do his hair. And the clothes. Definitely needs some work on the clothes. And the attitude. Major attitude problem. And it wouldn't hurt if he like applied himself to his school stuff, so you know, he could actually, be somebody besides a slacker-jobless-trailer-trash guy who happens to also be an alien from outer space, who isn't the only alien on the planet, but like one of the last of his entire species...\\ 

\\Ok, Maria, time to shut up and get looking,\\ She told herself. \\Michael. Think Michael. Follow the Michael-vibes. Vibes of Michael.\\ She could follow them. The more she moved towards the west side of town she felt them get stronger. The stronger they got, the closer she was to him. \\Right?\\ She hoped that was how the alien stuff worked. She was still kinda new to this after all. 

Maria drove in her mother's Jetta, heading in the direction of the growing feeling. She felt kinda intrusive though, cause they were like his emotions, and like she wouldn't want someone feeling her emotions. \\Nope. Hey waitasec... What if it's two way? Ugh. Bad thought, Maria... and anyway, if they lead me to Michael it's a good thing, right? It's his own fault. Him and his alien-ness. It isn't my fault he put the alien-whammy on me. Ok, maybe it was.\\ She did touch him after all. But he'd just seemed so upset. She knew she would have needed someone close by if she just found out her father was dead. \\And anyway, he was a good kisser.\\ 

\\Okkkaaaaayyyy. Where the Hell did that one come from? How did my father being dead lead to Michael being a good kisser?\\ She didn't want to -know- where it came from. It was the truth, sure. That one kiss in the Crashdown was... nice. Very nice. But it was just 'to calm her down'. \\Didn't mean anything. Nothing at all. I don't even want to kiss him again. Nope.\\ 

Hah. Who was she kidding? Not even herself, obviously. 

She was on the edge of town when it happened. It. The vibes suddenly... stopped. One second the vibes were being sent out, the next, they just stopped. There was like no other way she could think of to explain it. It was like someone turned off the radio. Right before it stopped though... the emotions panicked slightly. Maria instantly pulled the car over and fished out her phone. Her new phone. The last one Michael threw out the window of that very car. Luckily her mother wasn't too mad -- she'd told her some weirdo stole it -- and signed her up for a new one. She dialed up Liz's number instantly. 

"Hello?" her friend's voice came through the phone. 

"Liz, it's me." 

"Hey, Maria. Did you find him?" 

"Uh... no. Liz, I think something... I think something's up." 

"What's up? You okay?" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Really. It's Michael. Ya know... I can't... you know... feel him no more." 

"That's probably a good thing, Maria. Could mean he's calmed down enough to stop broadcasting to you." she didn't sound too concerned, but then again she could have just been trying to keep her friend from freaking out. 

"Nonononono. Liz, listen to me here. He's -not- calmed down. Something is wrong I tell you." 

"Maria, sniff some oil, then go back to looking. I'm sure nothing is wrong. He's probably just got himself back under control is all." 

"Don't humor me, damnit!" Maria yelled into the phone before she realized she was yelling. She was really getting worked up about this. She just had this horrible... horrible feeling. "God, I'll get back to ya, girl..." before Liz could say anything, Maria clicked on the End button. 

"Come on. Think girl. There's gotta be someplace you can come up with to find, Michael." she said aloud to herself. But alas, she didn't know Michael that well. It was only about a week ago that she even really ever talked to the guy. And even then she didn't learn all that much about him. \\Besides the fact that he seems to like checking into cheap motels. And he drives like he watched waaaaay too many car races as a young alien. And he likes his food sweet and spicy. And he doesn't give warning when he's going to lean down and kiss you...\\ 

\\Oh God, Maria, stop thinking about that. I feel like I'm in a bad episode of Passions. Think, Maria. Think. What's outside of town to the west? There's gotta be someplace he was going to... and if those totally weird 'other-aliens' got him then they would probably not risk taking him too far. This is a small town. Someone might spot them. It was a wonder no one saw them drag Liz off from wherever they grabbed her.\\ 

Maria was so deep in trying to come up with ways to find Michael that she almost missed the car driving past her and into the town. It wasn't the car that drew her attention, it was the guy in the back seat. Or to be more accurate, the -hair- of the guy sitting in the back seat. That hair. That annoying -hair-, that she so wanted to just slick back next time she got her hands on him. She instantly started her car up and did a U-ey to follow, trying to be as subtle as possible about it, hoping the two men in the car didn't notice her following them. 

While following she pulled out her phone again, this time dialing up Isabel's cell phone. Why she picked Isabel instead of Max or Cade she didn't really know, her number just came to mind first. It took a three rings before the girl-of-alien finally answered. "Max?" 

"No, not Max." 

"Maria?" 

"Look, Isabel, I found him, or sorta at least." 

"Thank God. I was getting worried. Is he alright?" She didn't sound too worried, but then this was Frost Queen. 

"Listen, I don't know if he's alright, I mean I haven't like exactly talked to him, ya'know?" She was trying to talk and keep following at the same time. So far she had yet to loose the car though, but she'd better cut this conversation short if she didn't want to risk losing them around a turn or something. "Look, he's in the back of a car, okay? I mean, there's like two old guys with him. It's like a red car, newish, pretty nice. I think it's a Toyota, but I'm not completely sure, didn't get to good a look, ya know? But the Liscence plate is RKA-627 and it's an Arizona plate. Maybe Cade can have his computer buddy run a trace or something." 

"Are you sure, Maria?" 

"Yeah... pretty sure. Look, I gotta go. I'm losing them, but they're heading East on National. We just passed the McDonald's." With that she hung up and tossed the phone down and concentrated on following. She knew Isabel would call Max and Cade and Liz and tell them what was going on, and she couldn't risk losing them. \\Oh... Oh damn! Where'd they go... oh wait. They stopped. Ooooooo... a motel.\\ She turned off her headlights and pulled to the side of the road, a good distance away and watched the car. 

The two men, one rather tall, the other rather short as men were concerned stepped out and went around to the door Michael was nearby. They picked him up and carried him towards a room. \\He must be unconscious... Arg, I hope -I- won't get stuck carrying him out of there.\\ 

Once they were both inside the room, Maria pulled the car into the parking lot and got out. \\Ok... bunch of options at this point that I can think of. 1) call Max and the others, 2) scope out the place -then- call Max and the others, or 3) knock on the door and say room service and rescue him myself. Hmmm. 3's out. Since when did I become a combat ready alien killer? And what if they're like humans? I'm kinda looking forward to a life -without- extensive jail time, ya know? Think I'll go with 2.\\ 

Maria moved up to lean against the window of the motel after they were inside for a while. A line of light peeked out from a crack in the curtains. Unlike most sane people, she didn't hesitate to kneel down and look through the window. Inside the room were the two men, no one else. One was on the phone, another was sitting on a chair in the corner. She wasn't able to see Michael at first, but then she caught his shadow against the wall - again, his hair was the key "It's Michael" clue. He was close to the window, sitting. The light from the lamp threw his shadow against the opposite wall, where she could see it. 

\\Alright, what have we got here. Two bad people. Could be human, could be of non-earthling status. Either way, they got Michael. Which equals "Dark Side." And one's on the phone. Could be calling for "backup". What to do..? What to do..?\\ She went back to her car quietly and grabbed her phone again. Liz? Isabel? Max? Cade? She knew the first three numbers, and Cade gave her his number before they set out on the wild-E.T. chase. Either was an option. In the end she picked Max. He was pretty level-headed, and had the jeep. 

"Hello?" 

"Max, it's Maria. Look, did Isabel call you?" 

"Yeah. You found Michael. Where is he? Is he alright?" 

"Oh, well, I think so. Not too sure. I mean I can't exactly walk into the evil dude's hotel room and ask, ya know?" 

"Hotel room?" Then a second later he cursed himself rather harshly and said in a surprisingly angry voice, "Of course. I'm such a idiot." His voice went back to norm-Max a second later, "The National Street Hotel. Room 14B. I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't do anything until I get there." 

"Uh... Alright.. How'd you...? Oh nevermind. Bye." 

"Bye." 

Click. \\Damn. Those alien powers are cool.\\ She put her phone away, and looked back towards the room... just in time to see one of the men step out. She ducked down quickly to stay out of sight, then glanced up to the edge of the window to make sure he didn't have Michael. Nope. No Michael. No short guy either. Just the tall one. Hmmm. \\I sense a plan forming.... Waitasec, Maria, didn't Max just tell you not to do anything? Oh well, what have you got to lose? ... Besides your life as you know it, a few limbs, and maybe a little of your dignity, but hey, why not? Michael's worth it, isn't he? He'd jump in to save you in a heart beat? Ok, maybe that's pushing it a little.\\ 

Before she even had the plan completely worked out she was knocking on the door. 

Chapter Ten Into Light 

He still couldn't move when they got him to hotel room they had, but he could feel it starting to wear off already. His alien metabolism must have been better then they thought it would be. Michael just had to stay calm and patient and wait for the chance to get them. But being patient was never one of his high points. They threw him down on a chair near the window and talked. He could hear them, his mind translated them, trying to keep from going into a panic. It would wear off, he kept telling himself that, and it helped. 

"I'll check with the Assembly, let them know we got one." the taller man was saying. Well, that confirmed it. Not Agents or the government. It was them. Oh he couldn't wait till the drug wore off and he could kill them. Then he'd hunt down each and every one of them on this planet and watch them dissolve in his hands, just like the woman did. 

The other man had a slight accent. Sounded like he was from Boston. "Shouldn't we contact Joshua? He is in charge of the mission. It's protocol..." 

"No. I'm tired of doing things 'his way'. The girl obviously didn't work." 

The man turned and went to the phone, picking it up. He dialed a number and then started to speak in an extremely strange language. It didn't even sound like words. It sounded like clicks and growls. But somehow he -knew- those clicks and growls. They tugged on his memories, memories he didn't even have access to, and somehow, for the first time ever, he found himself able to access them. He was requesting permission to render something called Ab'i'kuna. Though it sounded more like "Arrrgbrrrg'ii'krrgurrrnnna" which clicks for the "'"s. How his mind knew any of this was beyond him. But a second later it translated it into English. Or the closest to English that it could get. Alignment. 

The tall man hung the phone up a moment later, "They agree with Joshua. They want him to be questioned before any measures are taken. They think they could be used as an asset if this is done correctly." 

"You mean get them to fight for us?" 

Michael could only snort in response to that idea. Honestly he was surprised when he actually made the sound come out at all. Him fight for them? For the people who destroyed his people? A snort was definitely one of the best answers, right after a good ol' fashioned: Fuck off. But he still couldn't move his mouth very well. He tried, but it didn't work out. He certainly didn't want to end up drooling, so he stopped his attempts. 

They both looked towards him at the sound. 

The tall one was moving in an instant, and a fist impacted into the side of his face, knocking him out of the chair and on to the floor with a grunt. The shorter man grabbed a hold of his partner and said, "Damn it, Marcus, hitting him is certainly not the way to get him on our side. Now why don't you go see if you can get a sense on where the others are, if there are others. I'll question this one." 

The tall man, Marcus, argued for a second non-verbally, then nodded and went outside the door. Whatever the red haired man was called, he bent down and put him back into the chair, showing little to no effort in having to lift him up. "So... are there others?" The man kneeled down to eye level with him, watching him with pale gray eyes. 

Michael looked right back at him, then this nagging sense in the back of his mind, like whatever part of him translated the strange words being said into the phone. The sense was telling him not to lock eyes with the man, so he quickly diverted his eyes and looked away, focusing his shadow cast on the other wall by the lamp. The man frowned slightly and shifted his stance to move in his line of sight again. Again, Michael looked away. 

The man spoke again with a sigh, "So you at least know that much." The man stood up again and walked over to a bag laying against the wall and pulled a strange looking... instrument out of it. Looked like a meter of some kind. Michael wasn't sure what it was. The man was on his way back over with the instrument in hand when there was a knock on the door. He laid the thing down on the bed and went to look out the eye-piece. A second later he opened the door. "Can I help you?" 

Michael didn't know if he was more shocked at who was at the door, or by what she said. "Room 14B? Are you Joshua?" Maria? 

"No... he's not here." The man sounded openly confused by the whole thing. What Michael didn't understand, is if these Gua Acolytes or what-ever were following them around, and kidnapped Liz, how did they not know Maria's face when he saw it? Of course, Michael couldn't see her yet. His body wasn't in the right angle. 

"Well the Assembly sent me. They think you three are doing a piss-poor job." She pushed past the man and into the room, looking around. She looked exactly the same as he remembered her, only her the top two buttons of her shirt were undone. Her purse was hanging from her shoulder. She crossed her hands over her chest and stilled her hazel eyes on Michael. "And they were right. He's not even blindfolded. Very sloopy." 

The man shut to door and asked, "Who are you? What's your operation code? I was unaware that the Assembly was intending to send back-up. Were you stationed here?" 

"I've been stationed here for almost sixteen years, loser. This was -my- town. They gave you outsiders -my- assignment. I've gone through five husks to keep from being discovered here, and they give you -my- assignment." She sounded genuinely pissed. Michael was even impressed by her performance. Where the Hell was she coming up with this stuff from? Sure, Cade told them a little about the Gua, and he supposed that Joshua person must have after he... ran out... But... wait... what if she wasn't lying? No, bad thought, Michael. Very bad. Of course she's lying. 

His thoughts trailed off as she walked over to him and grabbed his face, "Handsome fellow, isn't he?" Her touch almost seemed to calm him down even more. 

In any other normal situation -- if he wasn't being held hostage and if he could speak -- he would have responded to that with some kind of witty quip. But for now all he did was blink and snort again. 

"State your name and operation code now." 

Maria let go of his face -- much to his dismay -- and turned to look at the man. "Maria." She walked until she was standing right in front of him. "And my operation code is..." she trailed off, and then did the last thing Michael was expecting. She kicked the Acolyte right where it would send a normal man to the ground in pain. Amazingly enough, the Gua had a rather normal reaction. "Fooled your ass! That's for hurting my friend." 

The man looked back up, and his face suddenly shifted. Just like the woman Michael had saw the other day. The one that Cade Foster killed. It seemed to glow red, moving around like some really good computer effects, revealing a strange, deformed, red face underneath. Then the man opened his mouth and let out a roar, which sounded similar to what the man was speaking over the phone. Then he launched himself at Maria. She let out a small squeak and tried to get out of the way, but he grabbed her and threw her. Michael struggled to get some control of his body, and only managed to twitch a little and make a few soft noises. 

Maria'd hit the wall that his shadow was thrown against fairly hard, and when she didn't get up right away he was starting to get intensely worried. Why the Hell did she come in here after him? How did she find him? Why was she trying to save him? If anything happened to her... if he had to sit here and watch and not be able to do anything... 

But she pushed herself up, and relief washed over him. Though if anyone asked him about it later he would completely deny he was worried in the first place. Him? Worried about Maria? Snort again. She had her hand in her purse as she stood. "Nice arm. You must work out a lot for a alien invader bent on conquering Earth." 

He didn't bother with a response as he moved towards Maria again. Michael tried to move, shifting his body back and forth. Whatever they'd put in him had to wear off soon. It'd been almost an hour, right? Well even if it wasn't that close, it sure felt like an hour. 

Everything happened so quickly then it was hard for him to register it all. The nameless Acolyte moved towards Maria and put his hands around her neck, she was struggling against him, Michael was trying to get his body to work to no avail. Then suddenly the Acolyte screamed again and... pulled back. Sticking out of his chest was a... letter opener with a little green alien head on the top. 

Maria was coughing and then said, "My mom makes them. Kinda neat, huh?" A second later the Gua was overcome with ripples of glowing red and began to shake until he was completely gone, a few puffs of smoke, or steam, the only trace he was there. The human girl just stood there for a moment looking as scared as she no-doubtedly felt, then gave her body a firm shake and said, "That was disgusting. Remind me next time to wait for Max." She finally glanced towards him, rubbing her neck where the man's hands had been applying pressure. "You alright?" 

Michael attempted to respond to that, say he was just fine, but all he could get was a few lip twitches and soft sounds from his throat. Whatever they'd done to him was getting really annoying. She seemed to take the hint right away, "Ok, so ya can't move or nothin'? Can you at least hear me?" It took all his effort to nod his head slightly. Unfortunately, gravity works, and he couldn't lift his head back up again. 

She was at his side in a second, "Don't worry. Max is on his way. He's got the jeep. We'll get you out of here. And hopefully I taught those alien assholes... uh... you know what I mean... Gurgle-people a lesson about messing with my friends." 

Guess Max didn't bail him out after all. Maria did. And for once in all the millions of times he was bailed out of trouble he'd gotten himself into, he actually wanted to say thanks. But he couldn't. At least not verbally. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Maria wanted to be sick. Not only had she just been attacked, thrown against a wall, and then nearly choked to death, but she ended up shoving a letter opener into someone's chest. Not something she does every day. She's Maria Deluca, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And then the guy dissolved. She couldn't even believe herself when she was able to talk, much less make an attempt at a joke. 

She could have a nervous break-down later. For now she needed to keep her head on her shoulders. After tilting Michael's head up for him, she reached into her purse and tried to find her cedar oil. It was only then that her shaking hands was clearly visible. She took a deep breath and finally found the oil, under her comb. She brought it up to her nose and took a couple really deep sniffs, and felt a little bit better. "Alright, now we have to get you out of here. Can you move at all?" When he didn't move she added, "I'll take that as a no." She dropped the oil back into her purse again. 

"Well, sorry to have to tell you this, pal-y, but you're a teeny bit too big for me to carry outta here, so we're gonna have to wait till Max gets here, or until the use of your motor functions return." She was talking a little faster then usual -- imagine that scary thought -- but otherwise she thought she was holding up pretty good. 

Maria's eyes went down to her purse again and then back to Michael. Idea. Evil idea. "You know... I've been waiting a long time to get my hands on you, when you couldn't fight me that is." She reached her hand down and pulled out the instrument of his destruction. A comb. "Now this'll hurt me more then it hurts you..." she joked momentarily as she reached forward to start combing back his hair. And she couldn't get further then the first few locks. "Jesus, what do you put on this? Cement?" Pause. "Don't answer that. Not that you could anyway... oh, I'm just gonna shut up now and try to comb." Keyword: Try. 

After about two minutes of trying, she got frustrated and threw the comb down into her purse, "Leave it to you to find some way to get on my nerves when you can't even speak." Michael made a sound in response, but she had no idea how to translate it, so she figured he was mocking her. \\Jerk.\\ 

There was a sound at the door. First thing to come to mind was: Max. Second thing to come to mind was: Oh God. Turns out her second thought was the right one, as the door opened to reveal the tall alien opening the door. He was talking, "Didn't get a trace on any of the..." but then he trailed off as he saw Maria standing next to Michael. 

All she could do was offer one of those 'caught red-handed' smiles. She tried to find words, think of something, but she couldn't at the moment. The only thought in her head was: \\We're dead. We are so dead.\\ 

Chapter 11 The Alignment 

\\We are so dead it is not funny.\\ Maria kept repeating to herself over and over as the man looked at them, rather confused in expression at that. At any other movement she likely would have 'ooged' and made a comment on how incompetent these "Acolytes" seemed to be. But she was waiting for him to pull out a gun or something and shoot them. The one that attacked Michael at first shot him... 

The man looked down towards the spot on the floor where his partner had dissolved. There was a stain on the carpet, but it was barely noticeable. He let out a sigh and closed the door behind him, "And you would be one of the others I assume?" 

\\Huh?\\ "Others?" 

"Don't play stupid, young one. You came to rescue your brother here." 

\\Alright... I really should have said that incompetent line. Yup.\\ But she couldn't force out anything other then total confusion. And fear over what he was going to do. She wanted to reach into her purse and pull out the cucumber-melon extract scent vial. That would work best for her. Likely keep her from fainting. Which she was getting pretty damn close to. \\Alright, Max, now would be a good time to ride up on the white stallion in shiny metal armor. ... I don't hear any hoofs!? ... Sigh. Just breathe, Maria. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.\\ 

The man gave a long sigh and reached to pull something out from under his jacket. Maria's breath caught when she saw what it was. It was shaped like a gun, but it... it wasn't a normal gun. It looked like some kind of dart gun, like what they always pulled out in the movies when they had to shoot an animal. \\What's he gonna do with that?\\ A second later she wanted to smack herself. \\Well duh. Obviously he's gonna kill us or something.\\ She glanced down at her purse, checking to see if she had another letter opener, anything that could be used as a semblance of a weapon. Only thing she had was a pencil and her keys... But the next thing she knew the man was pointing his gun-thing at Michael. 

\\Hey, aren't bad guys supposed to give all their plans away before they start to do them? That's what always happens in the movies...\\ Well he wasn't talking, and his finger was squeezing the trigger-like thing. \\I should sue the movie industry. They're liars.\\ And without a second thought she did something that she normally wouldn't have done if she had had a second to think about it. 

There was a sharp sting right under her ribs, felt similar to a bee sting. \\Well. That wasn't too bad. Michael could have taken that. No more jumping in front of bullets for him. This one was a dud.\\ 

But she didn't have much more time to think about that because the man was cursing and moving at her. \\Ack. Not good. Damn it, Michael, I better get a thanks or something later. Owww.\\ The last thought came as he punched her. 

She was grabbing her face and kneeling on the floor. He actually hit her! His species obviously didn't know manners. But then again a good amount of her own species lacked in that as well. The first thing she thought of after the ow, was how she was going to explain the black-eye to her mother. 

The man grabbed her back up and threw her against Michael, knocking over the chair he was in and him with it. \\Well, won't have to worry about explaining. I'll be dead, remember?\\ the cynical part of her mind reminded her. 

More pain. She was sure she was bleeding in more then a few places. The dart thing got jammed deeper into her, which hurt like hell, not to mention the man was pulling out a knife. Max was going to be too late. \\Sigh. 16 years and I die for a guy? An alien-guy no less. Double Sigh.\\ 

Maria was just waiting for the man to use that knife on her, bracing herself for the pain. Pain that never came. There was a hissing sound, and when she looked up, the man was gone, and Michael was standing over her. She closed her eyes for a second, and opened them again. Yup, still there. He just stood there for a minute, then said, "Hey." Just that. Nothing else. Guess whatever had him vegging in that chair wore off, just in time if she might add. 

All Maria said in response was exactly what was on her mind at the moment. "Ouch." 

He seemed to take the hint and kneeled down beside her, where the Acolyte who'd just turned into a puddle of fizzy stuff used to be, "Are you okay?" 

Maria gave him a look that said "What the hell do you think?" but what she said was, "I'm alive..." She sat up and flinched as lines of fire shot out from the dart sticking below her ribs. "Mostly at least," she added in a strained voice. 

He looked over her wounds, frowning slightly, "Max'll be here soon, hopefully." 

"Can't you just... you know... heal me?" 

He looked a reluctant, then just said, "Remember what I did to your engine when I tried to fix it?" 

"Point taken." She laid back down, trying not to strain her wounds any. 

She started to close her eyes when Michael said, "Keep them open. You might have head trauma or something. Plus we don't know what was on that dart." 

Maria couldn't hold back a smile, "You're actually 'Mother Hen'ing me." 

He returned the smile for a brief second, then seemed to catch himself and look away towards the door. "Come on, Max. Did you forget to fill the tank or something?" 

Trying to keep a semblance of a conversation, Maria added, "I called him a good twenty minutes ago. He might have been out of town though. You were missing a good forty minutes before I saw you in that car." 

Michael nodded, "Probably went to the rock... It's the first place I would look for me." 

The wound in her stomach started to hurt more and more, but she tried to ignore it. Max could fix a bullet wound, he could fix whatever this was. There was already blood covering most of her shirt. "Rock?" Reduced to a one-word Maria. Guess getting shot -- even with just a dart -- could do that to her. 

"Where we first saw each other, after we hatched." 

"Oh." 

The pain was increasing every second. With ever breath she took it was like someone was jamming a red hot poker into her -- not that that had ever happened before, but probably would feel similar. 

Michael seemed to know something was wrong, because he moved to where he was looking into her face and said, "Maria, I don't know how long Max is going to be, but we might not be able to wait for him. There might have been more Acolytes or something. If you... If you'll trust me to try, I'll try to heal this." 

The only answer she could give him was a nod. Her mind was starting to go fuzzy, like it did when she's really tired or something. One hand went to rest against her cheek, where the man had hit her, the other went to her stomach. There was a sharp really painful feeling down where the dart was. Likely Michael just pulled it out. Ow, ow, ow. 

The next few moments were all blurry. She couldn't even tell how long it lasted things were so out of whack. Feelings she couldn't begin describe if she tried went through her body. Then it was all over. No more pain. Just a really icky, sticky feeling around her stomach, from all the blood. She took in a deep breath, she'd been avoiding breathing more then was required before because of the pain, and found herself able to without a pinch or anything. He just stared at her, not saying anything. Maria hated an abundance of silence. It made her uneasy. So she broke it first, "You don't give yourself enough credit." 

Michael just sat back and looked away towards the door, "Max should be here any minute. I can feel him not too far away now." 

\\Okkkkaaaaaay? Why is he avoiding eye contact? It did work right?\\ Ponder later; sit up now. And that's just what she did. She sat up, looking down at her shirt, which was more red then the original color. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

For the last mile to the hotel, Max drove the speed limit. The trip there just was not going ideally at all. In fact, it was so far from ideal it was almost laughable. At any other time, Isabel would have been the first to note that. In the tradition of Murphy's Law, everything that could go wrong, did. On the way in town, one of the tires of the jeep blew out. Max repaired it without much trouble a few moments later. While driving in he picked up Isabel, who was on the way to the hotel. Then, of course, they got pulled over by Valenti, for speeding. Going 60 in a 35 zone. 

They obviously couldn't explain to the Sheriff how their friend was being held hostage by alien assassins bent on taking over the Earth -- though honestly, she would have loved to see what he thought of that -- so Isabel did her best to sweet-talk her brother out of the situation. Didn't work too well. Max still got the ticket, but they were lucky they got away at all, considering that they figured Valenti would take any opportunity given to him to take them in. 

When they got to the hotel, Maria was no where in sight, and Michael's presence was loud and clear. It'd been gone for a long time, something that had worried Isabel greatly, but it was back in all it's glory once more. 

"I told Maria to wait for me... I hope she didn't go and do something..." Max said as they got out of the jeep. 

Pointing out the worse-case scenario, Isabel added as they approached the hotel room, "Or they could have saw her." 

But neither of them were really half as worried as they were acting. They could feel Michael, and his emotions were somewhat annoyed, and a little on the nervous side and highly confused. In short, they rang with the very essence of how they had been through most of the trip to Texas, and even more once they got back. Maria seemed to have that effect on him. It was almost worse then watching Max and Liz stare into each others eyes. Not quite as bad, cause Max had the whole 'He's my brother and that's just gross' thing going for him where Isabel was concerned. Michael was the next closest thing to a brother, and watching him flirt with -anyone- was just... ew. Now if either of the two alien boys got smoochie with those girls in front of her, she might just have to introduce them to a little something called vomit. 

They went to the door and Max pushed on it, opening it without any trouble. The thing wasn't even closed all the way. Isabel was starting to wonder what went down while they were on the way over. The first thing she saw when she stepped into the room was Michael. His hair was messed up a little, some of the spikes were brushed back, but most of them were sticking up and sideways and in the normal disarray. He spoke before either of them could, "About time." 

"Max got a speeding ticket, from Val..." she trailed off as soon as she saw the other person in the room. Maria. She was sitting up on the floor near a fallen over chair... with blood all over her shirt. It was more red then light blue, which was the original color of the shirt. Max saw it a second later and was instantly moving towards the blond human girl. 

Maria just raised her hands and said, "I'm fine. Michael healed me." 

Isabel's reaction to that statement was simple. And in the simplest terms possible, it was: Jaw hit floor. Michael!? Michael Guerin, Michael? As in their Michael? The guy who couldn't control his powers for anything more complex then a simple lock? Max's reaction wasn't quite as apparent, but the emotions coming from him were surprised. Then a second later it was gone and he turned on his best friend. 

"Michael, you should have waited for me. If you had messed up in even the slightest you could have made things worse, or even killed her by accident." 

Michael's response to that was his natural, defensive manner, "Whatever you say, Maxwell. I couldn't possibly do as perfectly as you, God Forbid." A moment later he turned to storm out, in his Michael-ish fashion, but Maria's words stopped him. 

"Max, he knew it might have killed me, but..." She stopped and stood up, "No, let's not go into it. I'm alive. Both the Acolytes are dead. No need for you to get all scold-y with Michael, deal?" 

Aw. She was defending him. How sweet. Isabel resisted the urge to gag. 

"You killed two Acolytes?" a voice came from the doorway. It was Cade's voice, but Isabel couldn't help but jump slightly. With him were Liz and Joshua. 

Michael -- who seemed to have calmed down from his 'I'm gonna storm out now' mood -- answered that question, "I killed one, Maria killed the other." 

Liz had the same reaction Isabel did to the sight of her best friend, only she vocalized it, "Oh my God, Maria, are you okay??" 

Maria repeated the fact that she was fine, then told what happened in detail, repeating herself more then once on some instances. Maria stabbed the guy in the chest with a letter opener? Then she got shot? What was it with their group and getting shot? First Liz, then Michael, now Maria. Who was next? Sure, the first two were both with bullets, but... 

Her train of thought was interrupted by Michael's voice, "When he was on the phone, one of them mentioned something about... Ab'i'kuna..." 

Why did that word sound so familiar? She couldn't place it though, especially with the weird growling sound behind it, and the two strange clicks. She wasn't even sure she could repeat the word, much less translate it. But she didn't need to. 

"The Align..." Joshua started. 

Michael finished for him, "The Alignment. Yeah, I know what it means, but I don't know... what it means." 

What Isabel wanted to know was what Liz asked, "How'd you know the Alignment part?" Now that they'd said it, it just fit. 

"I don't know. I was really out of it for a while, and I could... understand what they were saying. I just want to know what it was they were talking about. That one I killed wanted to 'render' it to me, so I want to know what the hell it was." 

Joshua stayed silent for a while, and everyone looked at him. Eventually it was Cade's saying his name in question that made him start talking, "Ab'i'kuna, better known in this tongue as the Alignment, was what we used to destroy your species. It's a chemical used to break down someone's DNA, or specifically, someone of your species. It's useless on anything else, targeting the energies which make up your bodies, and breaking it down until it's non-existent. And once it gets to that point, you would be unable to hold yourself together, and you would die." 

Before any of the Trio of that now nearly extinct species could make any response to the news of how their species had been eliminated, Joshua turned and motioned towards Maria, "My guess, is that the dart he shot Miss Deluca here with was laced with the chemical." 

So she saved Michael's life? How... quaint. They better not start making goggle-y eyes at each other. 

Erg. Great. Wonderful. Perfect. Michael looked towards Maria all surprised like, then shook it off a second later. Thank God. No one said anything for a few moments. 

It was Joshua who broke the silence again, "I will be leaving town now." He turned towards Foster, "I hope you don't mind if I blame the deaths of the Acolytes here on you. I'll see what I can do about keeping the Assembly from sending any more this way." 

"I don't mind." Cade said, moving away from the door. 

On his way out, Max spoke up, "Joshua..." The tall, dark Gua paused in the doorway, but didn't turn. "I just wanted... to thank you." 

Isabel couldn't help but roll her eyes. Good ol' Max. Polite, perfectly gentleman-ish. She could have never brought herself to thank the man. His species had killed her species. Her parents, her ancestors... Yes, sure, he probably just saved their lives, and was going back to that Assembly to do so again, but she still couldn't have brought herself to say thanks. But then Isabel Evans barely said thanks for anything. 

Joshua didn't turn, he just gave a slight nod of his head and left the hotel room. 

A few moments of silence fell heavily on the room again. Then Maria broke it, "So, what now? I can't go home like this. Or outside for that matter." 

Michael started to take off his jacket, then noticed Cade doing the same thing and stopped. A few moments later, the older man's leather jacket was pulled shut over Maria's bloody shirt. Isabel could have offered to remove it for her. Blood, coffee, all the same in the end. A wave of a hand and it would vanish. 

It was Cade who gave an idea where to go next, "If you guys can call your parents and come up with an excuse, I'd like you all to meet a friend of mine. There's something else I need to.. discuss with you." 

Something else? Oh fun. What more could there possibly be to reveal? 

Chapter Twelve Three Quatrains 

It had taken a few minutes for Eddie to let the teenagers into his 'lair' more accurately known as his trailer. Their mobile base of operations. But Cade Foster was able to convince him that the five teenagers were on their side. Two of them had even taken out Gua Acolytes. A feat not many could say they had done. Once they had all found someplace to sit in the rather cramped environment of the messy living area, the Evans boy brought up the question, "So why did you bring us here, Mr. Foster?" 

"You can just call me Cade, or Foster if you prefer. I'm not your teacher. You don't have to call me 'Mister'." Cade glanced towards Eddie and then said, "Do you want to tell them or should I?" 

"Oh, I'll take a crack at it." The curly haired Editor of the Paranoid Times website turned slightly in his chair near the computer set up. A set up which Maria had commented was a friend of theirs by the name of Alex's dream. "Alright, you kids know about the Gua, and their intentions, but what Foster left out is that we're trying to stop them. Ever heard of Nostradamus?" 

"Oh, yeah, of course. He's like the most accurate prophet in history. Kinda scary though if you look at what he had sketched up for the twenty-first century..." Maria mused softly from her seat near Liz. She was still wearing his jacket to cover her bloody shirt. 

"Yeah, well, in 1564 he wrote a book. A book that was lost. Foster here found it. The book predicts that the destruction of Earth will happen in Three Waves. The Third wave is Armageddon. The Second Wave is Invasion from above. And the First Wave is in progress as we speak." 

There was a soft whisper from one of the teens. Isabel Evans in fact. "'The second wave is closer than you think. It's like a thunderstorm rolling over the hills -- it can't be stopped. You can already hear the rumbling.'" 

Foster blinked slightly. Joshua had said the exact thing to him after their first real meeting in Montana. Could their species somehow read his mind? 

Eddie didn't hear what she whispered though, and continued, "He also predicted that if we can stop the First Wave, the others won't happen. And that's what we're trying to do." 

"Why?" the question came from Michael from where he was sitting off by himself. 

"They're trying to kill us. Why not?" Eddie answered almost angrily. 

Cade cut him off, "There are many reasons why. Admittedly at first I was doing it for revenge. Now..." He shrugged his shoulders. He stopped hunting them for revenge a long time ago it seemed. After he found the one that killed his wife and killed him. Now he was doing it because it was the right thing to do. And he said so. That shut Michael up. 

"And because he's the Twice-Blessed Man." 

Oh, thanks for throwing that out, Eddie. Can't ever leave that out, can he? 

"Twice-Blessed Man?" Max Evans asked from his seat next to his sister. 

Eddie started to recite the Quatrain from memory. "'On the seventh dawn of the seventh day, a twice-blessed man will roam the fields...'" 

But someone else finished the Quatrain for him. Isabel. "'Doomed to shadows with his brethren, or savior to all who walk the ground.'" 

There was silence in the trailer for a few moments, then Cade figured it out. Sometimes he caught on slow, other times he didn't. This was one of those 'in-between' times. "You really were in my dream last night, weren't you?" 

She gave a small nod. 

Eddie was all confused though, "Huh? How'd she get in your dream, Foster? Please tell me we're not dealing with one of those telepathic chicks again?" 

Foster was hoping he wouldn't have to break the news that three of the teens in the trailer -- the Children of Energy and Light -- were aliens, like the Gua, but a completely different species. "It's a long story, Eddie." 

"I don't doubt it. So which of these kids are the Children of Light anyway?" 

Foster really wanted to punch Eddie right then. He was hoping to break that part to them easily. Of course how does one break the fact that the kids were destined to be something hundreds of years before they were born. Or hatched as the case may be. 

There was a round of "What?" "Huh?" "Say again?" from the teens. All expect Max, who stayed silent. 

Foster was unable to repeat the Quatrain from memory, so he reached over and grabbed the printed out page that Eddie had nearby. The Quatrain was on it. "'Quatrain 27, Century 8 - Survivors of slain ancient enemy. Hunted by all, though known by few. Children of energy and light, fiery avengers of their ancestors' fate.' It's what lead me here. Well, that and a tip from Joshua." 

The three teens the Quatrain spoke of glanced at each other. Max was the one who said it, "So we are supposed to be 'fiery avengers'?" 

"It could mean a lot of things. Nostradamus was nothing if not cryptic." Foster said. Over the year of using Quatrains to track alien experiments across America, he'd found some of them to be highly misleading. 

"There's more." Eddie said from his computer. "I did a word search on the remaining Quatrains, looking for any that might deal with the Children. I found another one." 

Now why didn't Eddie tell him that when he'd called to ask him to be in this area? 

Michael was sitting up and asking, "What does that one say?" so Foster couldn't put the breaks on any further reciting. Eddie was getting way to loose lipped when it came to those who -might- be on their side. 

"Quatrain 34, Century 8 - Child of passion, child of pain. Holder of faith in those long forgotten. Mingled in shadows, wrapped in webs, pulled into light by a fickle aroma." 

Cade was barely able to hold back a smile. He already knew what that one was about. But he was going to wait and see if any of the others understood it. 

Maria was the one who did, "Oh that is so unfair! I'm like never gonna read Nostradamus again. 'Fickle aroma.' Okay, like what is he trying to say about me? My aroma is -not- fickle, ya know?" 

Michael cleared his throat slightly and murmured, "I don't think he was talking about your 'aroma', Maria. I think he was talking about -you-." 

"Oh. Okay." Then the girl seemed to process that. "Hey! I am -not- fickle!" Michael just gave her a look. So did Liz and Isabel. Max just seemed to do the same thing Cade was trying to do. Fight back a grin. 

"I'll assume that it's already happened?" Eddie said with a raised eyebrow. 

"You can put that one in the 'done' folder, Eddie." 

It was Max who jumped in with the serious stuff, all signs of the grin that might have broken through gone, "So what happens now? No offense, Mr. Foster, but we're sixteen years old. Sophomores in high school. We can't really do anything about this. We have parents, curfews. School. We can't just drop everything and go cross country hunting down Gua." 

"I could go and no one would care." Michael murmured softly under his breath. 

Liz seemed to believe that statement was false, and said so, "That is not true, Michael. I can name four people in this very trailer that would care if you left." And of course she wasn't talking about the two adults there either. 

"Liz is right, of course we would care. I didn't jump in front of a bullet for you for nothin'." Maria said softly, shifting in her seat at the mention of a bullet. Of course it was -actually- a dart, but close enough. 

Michael shrugged his shoulders and went silent. 

Foster looked at Eddie. He could tell Eddie wanted him to talk the kids into joining up with their little 'Anti-First Wave' movement. But just like when he couldn't tear apart Julia Loomis' young teenage life even for the chance with proving that the invasion was coming, he couldn't tear apart the lives of the three Kahmezari ancestors in the trailer with him. Children of Light or not. He just couldn't do that. His teenage life was anything but ideal. These kids deserved a life that wasn't on the streets or on the run, or hiding from the law. Or even chasing down alien invaders. They deserved to go to football games. And school dances. And fail finals. 

So that's why he did what he did, despite the fact that he knew it would likely give Crazy Eddie an ulcer. "Right now, you go back to your lives as usual. It doesn't say anywhere in the Quatrain that you have to fight side-by-side with me. If I need you again, Nostradamus will let me know." 

Surprisingly, Eddie only sighed and turned back to his computer. Cade had been expecting an outburst. Not... nothing. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

The next day, Foster was getting things wrapped up before he was leaving town for the next destination. A email Eddie received from a reader on the Net which might have connections to the Gua testings would be taking him to Arkansas. He only had a few things to wrap up before he would go. He needed to make sure the teens knew how to reach him in case they needed the Twice-Blessed Man for a little help down in alien central. 

He left them the address for the website, and several email addresses that the three alien teens put into memory. If they needed him, he would come back and do whatever he could to make sure that they were around when he needed them. Eddie had came clean later after they'd left and admitted that he had no doubt that Nostradamus had more sketched up for them three. 

In return, they gave him phone numbers, and the email addresses that some of them had, so he could contact them if the Quatrains mentioned them again. Michael was the most willing of any of them to get involved in the Gua-hunting activities, but the others were keeping him under control. If Foster had tried, he wouldn't doubt at all that he could get Michael to join up with him. 

Anyway, he'd just left them at the Crashdown, heading towards the bus station. Eddie was already on the road to get out of the area. Part of Eddie's paranoia. He couldn't stay in one place for very long at all. Cade was a block away from the Crashdown, and a block away from the bus stop when a truck pulled in beside him. Not just any truck either. A Sheriff truck. Oh, this was the -last- thing he needed. 

"Cade Foster?" a voice called out behind him, after a door opened. 

There were only a few options Foster could entertain right then. For the moment, he just kept walking. No Cade Foster here. 

"Turn around and keep your hands in sight." 

That never had worked before. He didn't know why he was hoping it would then. He turned around, keeping his hands held out away from his body, "Excuse me, Officer? You must have me confused with someone else." Yeah, like that would work any better. 

"Unless you have a twin brother, I don't think I do." 

Okay... Final option. Even with a gun in the Sheriff's hand. Run. And Foster did just that. No back alley. No roof tops. Foster just ran right into the store he was closest to. Most officers were reluctant to fire into a group of people. Hopefully the Sheriff would be as well. He ran through the store, pushing a woman into the row of shelves as he ran by her. It didn't take long to find a back door and then he really started to run. Good thing he was in good shape. While he was running he pulled his cellphone out of the pocket of his jacket which he got back from Maria. 

He dialed up Eddie while still running, glancing back to see where the Sheriff was. He'd just gotten out of the back of the store. Must have stopped to help the woman. Cade turned into an alley before he could give the Sheriff a clear shot. When Eddie picked up he yelled, "Damn it, Eddie! I need some directions! Fast!" Deja Vu. The same thing had happened when he was posing as a college student. 

He gave the general area he was in, and Eddie started telling him where to go. He ran through a crowd of people, trying to duck out of sight of the Sheriff, through another store, down a couple alleys, but for someone who had a few years on him, the Sheriff kept up pretty damn well. And trying to talk on a phone was slowing him down. He ended the call after had a general idea on where was a safe direction to go. In other words the direction that wouldn't lead him right into the heart of Roswell Police. Running by a station while being chased by the Sheriff wasn't exactly an ideal situation. 

It was time to hit the roofs, Foster decided. He was a thief, he could climb better then most people. Hopefully he would be able to out-climb the Sheriff. Grabbing onto the fire escape on the side of a nearby building, he took the climb as quickly as he could, using the metal work as cover as best he could. The Sheriff wouldn't be foolish enough to waste too many bullets on shots that weren't very clean. As it was he only wasted one, which missed by less then an inch. It was only a two story building, so he was on the roof in a few heartbeats. Instead of doing any roof hopping, he went to the back of the building, and used the electric and cable wires to slow his decent as he went down to the alley behind the building. Despite that it still jarred his legs a little at the landing, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Only a two story building. He'd done that on twenty story ones in Chicago. Course he nearly broke his ankles back then... But that move should have bought him a few minutes. 

It didn't though. Damn, that guy was a persistent old bugger. And there were police sirens starting to go off. People must have called in the chase. This wasn't a big city like he was used to. People cared when the Sheriff was chasing someone. Cade lingered a little too long in the newest alley, and gave the Sheriff a good shot, and sure enough the man took the shot. He had no reason not to. He'd yelled more then one warning during the chase. He'd ran. The Sheriff had every right to open fire at that point in time. And he didn't miss either. 

Chapter Thirteen Twice Blessed 

Sitting at the booth in the Crashdown, Michael Guerin wanted nothing more then to get up and leave. Badly. But Max had made sure he sat against the wall, with Isabel on the outer side of the booth. They all knew he wanted to jump up and follow after Cade the minute the man left the restaurant. It wasn't fair. Just because all of the others had lives and people who cared about them didn't mean they had to deny him of the chance to hunt down the bastards who destroyed his species. They were supposed to be ready to pack up and leave at any time, and now that he finally had something to leave for, they were holding him back. As Maria would say; It was so unfair. 

He should have just left last night and caught up with that Crazy Eddie guy. He could tell that the curly haired computer geek had wanted them to join up with their cause. But no, he'd stayed. He didn't even know why he'd stayed. Who cares if they would care if he left? It was just four people who would care. Hank would miss his monthly check, but he would get over it. No one else would care at all. 

Michael should have just left right then. But he didn't. He could have pushed Isabel out of the booth and gone. But he didn't. He could wait til later tonight to catch up with them. But he wouldn't. And he couldn't even give words to the reasons why he might stay. Probably because he really didn't want to admit that there was a reason to stay. 

Both Maria and Liz were working their Saturday shift, but Liz was on a five minute break and was sitting next to Max on the other side of the booth and sipping on a Blood of Alien Smoothie. Michael had barely even touched his Trekkie Special. After a few moments, Liz jumped in with a question, keeping her voice down, "I've been wondering, why doesn't Maria have a silver handprint on her anywhere?" 

Isabel looked up, "She doesn't have one?" 

"Nope. I checked while we were changing into our uniforms. Not even a silver fingerprint." 

They all looked at Michael. "Hey, don't look at me. Superman over there's the expert." 

When the eyes went to said healing expert, he looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I'm not really sure. Perhaps it has something to do with the Alignment being in her system at the time. We don't even know what causes the handprint, so it could be a number of factors. Maybe Michael just did something different." 

"Well I ain't doing it again." Michael muttered angrily under his breath. He didn't like the healing thing at all. He'd never tried it on a human before. It had been a real risk even to attempt at it. But it had been even more a risk to wait for Max. Maria wouldn't have made it if he would have waited. And he had not been prepared for that connection with a human being at all. With an animal it's usually flashes of chasing something, or flying. But with Maria... Oh, he didn't even want to think about it. 

"Well, if it didn't show on her, then we won't have to worry about hide..." Isabel was saying, then was cut off with a gasp suddenly as she started up fast like someone just dropped ice down her back. A second later Max did the same. Then it cycled around and hit Michael. 

It was like no other vision or flash he'd ever gotten. First big difference, he wasn't touching anything connected to the vision when it hit him. Second, all three of them appeared to get it instead of just one. Third... it was extremely vivid. Emotions. Thoughts. Sights. Sounds. Feelings. It was a lot like the healing connection, actually. 

** Flash ** 

Running. Running. Feet impacting against concrete. Heart beating heavily in chest. Sweat beading down forehead. Have to get away. Have to hurry. Push lady out of the way. Sorry lady. Hope she's okay. 

** Flash ** 

Scrape of metal against the side of the building. Gun report loud from behind. Bullet impacting against metal a few inches away. On the roof. Safe. Home free. Slide down back of building. Burns of hands from the electric wires. Legs jarred. Run. Run. Glance back. Still following. Run faster. 

** Flash ** 

Sirens from two directions. Loud noise. Pain flares. Hurts to run. Have to keep running. Can't get caught. Too much at stake. Can't let them win. Have to get away. 

** Flash ** 

More pain. Able to stop finally. Away. Got away. Lost him. Blood. Try to bandage. Try to stop bleeding. Can't go to a hospital. Gunshots always reported. Nowhere to go. Pain. 

** Flash ** 

Reality returned. The flashes had only lasted a second, but the emotions and the thoughts and the pain that came with the flash remained a few seconds longer. Liz was asking what was wrong, trying not to draw attention of the customers towards them. Once he recovered, Michael looked towards Isabel and Max. Unspoken communication passed between them for a second, and they all started to stand up, Isabel moving out of the booth while saying, "We have to go." She was already starting out the door, trying not to look in too much of a hurry. The sirens from the flash were real. They were going off out side. 

Liz was getting out of the way so Max could slide out, while he was pulling enough money to cover the bill and the tip from his pockets to give to the waitress. She asked softly, "What's going on?" 

"I'll explain later." Max said, following behind Michael and Isabel, who were already on their way towards the door. Michael glanced back to make sure Liz and Maria weren't planning on following. This wasn't their problem. This was a problem for the Children of Light. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

As soon as Max Evans was out of the Crashdown, the sound of sirens was no longer as easy to over look. He hated not being able to tell Liz what was going on, but the less she knew the better. He didn't know who Cade was running from yet, or how hurt he was. It was better if Liz not get involved until it was safe. 

Isabel motioned her head in the southern direction, "He's that way." 

"Are you sure?" Max asked his sister. 

"Very sure." 

Michael moved in close to them and said, "I'll go find out what's going on with the sirens. I'll be behind you in a bit. You two go ahead." 

The Evans nodded together and got into the jeep, driving towards where Isabel had motioned. Admittedly, Max was wondering how Isabel knew which direction to go at all, but somehow deep down he knew as well. That tugging sensation he felt around Cade every time the man was nearby was increased almost ten fold. Perhaps it was some form of fate. Michael would have likely started laughing at that idea. But some of the things that had occurred recently pointed in the direction of fate being real. Especially now that he'd heard of the Nostradamus book and the predictions in it. It was all too much to be mere coincidence. It was like their fates were intertwined. Just like fate and chance had made sure he was in the Crashdown the day Liz had been shot. If he hadn't been, she would have died. He wondered absently if Nostradamus had seen that too. 

He didn't drive very fast. Didn't want to draw attention to himself. Police officers and deputies had suddenly appeared out of the woodwork. He never knew Roswell had so many cops. Something really big must have happened. And Cade Foster was some how in the middle of it. 

"We should get out of the jeep soon. He's in hiding. We don't want to lead them to him." Isabel said softly. Then she looked over at him, "You don't think Joshua betrayed him do you?" She was extremely worried. More so then she would normally be with someone she'd just met a few days ago... 

"I don't know, Izz. But we'll find out." Max murmured, turning into the parking lot of a store. Cade was very close by. He could feel it. 

Michael suddenly appeared out of nowhere, running towards them. When he stopped beside the jeep he took a few breaths before he said, "Hey. Found out what's going on." 

Isabel was getting out of the jeep, and Max was doing the same, but it was the girl alien who spoke, "So you going to tell us or leave us in suspense?" 

"There's a city wide manhunt going on for an escaped convicted murderer. He was IDed in town last night by a citizen and spotted by the Sheriff just a little while ago." 

Max didn't like the sound of that at all. Neither did Isabel by the feeling of the emotions coming off her. "That can't be..." 

"Yes it can. Cade Foster." Michael said, matter-of-factly. "Convicted over a year ago for the murder of Hannah Foster. His wife. He escaped a few days after sentenced. Also wanted in connection to dozens of other crimes since, including the deaths of three police officers." 

Isabel let out a sigh of relief and said with total conviction, "He did not kill his wife. I walked around in his subconscious. I know he didn't kill her, I don't care what any jury said. As for the others, they were probably Gua." 

"I didn't think he -did-, Isabel." Michael said firmly. "Which is why I bought us a few minutes by calling in a sighting on the other side of town, hopefully Hank won't mind that I used his name." 

Max grinned briefly then said, "Well we better use those few minutes then. At least we know it wasn't the Gua he was running from." Which means Joshua didn't betray him, and there was a better chance that he wouldn't betray the rest of them either. Oh, wouldn't the Sheriff just love this. Max Evans helping a convicted killer escape justice. 

It took them a few minutes to find Foster. When they did, Max was sincerely glad he'd come. Foster would need some healing if he was going to get out of the state fast. He had a gunshot in his left leg. How he'd managed to continue to run with that, Max had no idea. He threw a glance back at Isabel and Michael, "You two go on either end of the alley. Make sure no cops come down this way. If you see them, tell them you saw the convict go away from here." They both nodded and went to position themselves. 

Max knelt down beside the Twice-Blessed Man and said, "Mr. Foster, open your eyes. You have to be looking at me for this to work." 

The older man laughed softly and opened his eyes, "I told you, just Cade or Foster." 

"Ok... Cade.." Max felt weird calling an adult by their first name. "I'll get you fixed up, then we'll get you out of here." He reached down to tear the leg of Cade's pants around the wound. Skin-to-skin contact, while not required, did help a lot. He laid his hand over the wound and concentrated. A few seconds later the connection was made. 

The flash of memories he got from Cade were from his teenage years. All focused around his step-father. His step-father was in short a drunken bastard who beat his wife and step-son on regular occasions. It made Cade angry. So angry. And extremely sad... And lonley. Max flinched away from the flash of memories and set his mind on the task at hand. Fixing the wound. 

Nudging the molecular structure of his skin and bone and veins wasn't very hard. It took a little bit longer then the healing of Liz because the bone was fractured in a few places and he had to be careful he set it right. Once Max was done he sat back and took a slow intake of breath. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Her side was devoid of any police officers, so Isabel Evans glanced back into the alley. Max was almost done with his part of the job, so she abandoned her position and headed back towards her brother. He sat back and took in a slow breath when she got close. He was finished. The bullet hole was closed, and all damage repaired. Cade was sitting up to look at his newly healed leg. "You guys are good to have around in a crisis." 

"It's been said," Max said softly, moving to stand up. 

"Can you get out of town by yourself, or do you need help?" Isabel asked as she moved to stand beside her brother. 

"I can handle this. Nothing I haven't done before." He paused and looked at them, "Do you even know why they're after me?" 

"Yes. Michael found out." she said, looking at Max. Then added, "We know you didn't do it though." 

Cade smiled slightly and moved to stand up. "Thanks for the confidence." 

"We can run interference if you need us to." Max piped in a second later. 

"No. I got it covered." Cade pulled out his cellphone and dialed up a number, then spoke into the phone, "I'm away Eddie, but could you make sure the police think I've been captured in a nearby town so they'll call of the search long enough for me to get out of here?" They really had the fugitive on the run thing down... "Thanks. I'll give you five minutes." He clicked his phone off and put it away. 

"I better stop taking all these chances. I might have just used up my second blessing." Cade said with a smile and a half-laugh. 

"You used up your first?" Isabel asked, glancing towards the area she was scopeing out earlier. Still no sign of police. Good. Last thing they needed was for the Sheriff to see them talking to a convicted killer. Wouldn't he just love to use that to bring her and her brother in... 

"Yeah. A few months ago I died." 

Huh? "Well obviously you didn't die very much, cause you look alive to me." Isabel said with a decent amount of disbelief. 

Cade seemed to find that funny, and said, "Well technically -I- didn't die, but Cade Foster did. In another timeline. A woman from a future that's in the middle of the Third Wave traveled back in time and saved my life." 

Stare. "What is this, The Terminator?" 

Cade just laughed softly, "Believe me, I know how it sounds. Alien invaders bent on domination of Earth. Friendly teenage alien crash survivors just trying to fit-in in American high school. A five hundred year old book of lost prophecies telling me what to do. The savior of the human race a reformed thief from Chicago. A fugitive framed for the murder of his wife on the run from the law. It's like my entire life became about ten different movies." 

Michael came back into the alley with good news, "They called off the search. Now would be a good time to go." 

Foster gave a nod and held his hand out to Max, "Thanks for the help. All of you." Max took his hand and gave it a small shake. "Remember, if you need anything..." 

Max finished for him, "We'll get a hold of you." 

"If I ever get shot again, I'll be sure to call you guys." 

Isabel chuckled softly, then said, "Just don't get shot again so you won't have to need us." 

"Deal." He grinned and shook hands with her as well. When his hand was offered to Michael he just looked at it. Taking the hint, Foster gave one final nod all around, then turned and left. 

Max looked towards Michael once Cade was out of hearing range, "You really want to go with him, don't you?" 

Michael looked thoughtful for a minute, then said, "Yeah." 

"Then you can go... I won't stop you." Max said to the shock of his sister. She opened her mouth to protest, but Michael was already speaking. 

"No. I'll stay." His eyes stared off into the distance for a moment, then he looked towards them. "I have a feeling he's going to need us. All of us. And sooner then we'd like to think." 

Isabel really didn't like the sound of that. And neither did her brother as far as she could tell. 

Chapter Fourteen Destiny Waits 

"Jim, here's the information you requested." 

Jim Valenti looked up from where he was going through a few files. "Thanks, Owen." He took the folder. The folder with the information on Cade Foster in it. After the convict escaped justice in Roswell, Valenti wanted to learn why the man had been here in the first place. And how he'd managed to get away. He knew he shot the man. He even saw some blood on the concrete to prove that the bullet had hit. But no men fitting the description of Cade Foster were checked into a hospital with a gunshot wound anywhere in the surrounding counties. And why did they get information over the police radios that he had been captured? 

The first thing in the folder was a fax of the wanted poster. The second was a list of all the crimes that he's wanted in connection to, and a list of warrants a mile long. 

The defending attorney in his trial tried to get a Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity plea out of his client, but Foster insisted he was not insane. He was sentenced and put in a prison-hospital for the criminally insane. He escaped a few days later. The police report of the escape says that he picked the locks on his restraints and the door and assaulted an intern and escaped out one of the side doors. 

During a police chase in Montana an officer was killed, and two others were wounded. Cade Foster wanted in connection to both. 

He was captured in Chicago briefly after returning to his wife's grave on their wedding anniversary. Two police officers were killed and another assaulted and he escaped. 

Witnesses identified him for a murder outside Washington, D.C. only four months ago. 

Despite the long list of crimes, the thing that grabbed Valenti's attention the most was the man's testimony from the trial transcript. Foster's testimony in his defense stated that aliens had killed his wife and framed him. Aliens. At multiple times during questioning he burst out yelling, "You're aliens! All of you! Aliens!" 

One of the arresting officers even said that when he was apprehended at 19 Haven Street in Chicago, Foster was yelling, "You're aliens!" 

Hmmm. Very interesting. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

November 21, 1999 

Another eventful day in the life of Liz Parker. Everything with the "other outsiders" is finished finally. Or at least we hope it is. Michael's still brooding over the whole thing though. I think he really wanted to go. My mom's all hysterical because there was a convicted murderer sighted in Roswell yesterday, and he escaped. She's just being a mom though. There's nothing to worry about really. The convict was Cade Foster. The same Cade Foster that showed up in town just a few days ago and turned our lives upside down yet again. I'm starting to wonder if my life will ever stop doing somersaults. 

Part of me wants to help him as well. Like Michael probably does. Like Foster said, it's the right thing to do. Fight for the world. For the future of humanity. Yeah, sounds like a cheesy movie. I know. But then ever since Max saved my life it's been leaning towards the unbelievable. I mean, how can I become a molecular biologist if the Gua invade next month? Or even next year? Or five years from now? But Max was right. There's really not that much we can do. We're teenagers. We can't even vote. How can we go about saving the world? 

Liz Parker stopped writing in her journal and frowned at the last paragraph. She hadn't even realized how much she wanted to help out until she wrote it down. But what she wrote was true. There was nothing she could really do. Max, Michael and Isabel. They at least had powers they could offer. What did she have? 

The phone rang and Liz put her journal away and answered it, "Hello?" 

"Hey Liz." Maria's voice rang out. 

"Hey, how's it going?" 

"Um.. It's going okay. I guess." She didn't sound too okay... 

"You guess?" 

"Yeah, well... It's Michael." Oh. Of course it would be Michael. 

"What about Michael?" 

"He's avoiding me! I mean the guy won't even look me in the eyes. It makes me so mad! What the hell is wrong with him? Can't he look me in the eyes like a decent human being." Liz bit her lip. Then Maria realized what she said, "I take back that last statement." 

Liz smiled at the phone, even though her friend wouldn't be able to see it, "My advice on this: Ask him." 

"Bah! You're not supposed to tell me that. I know that. I just wanted to complain for a few minutes, capiche?" 

"Alright, alright. Complain away. I'm all ears." Liz sat down, a smile wide on her face. 

"I mean the guy like saved my life, right? And I saved his first, and the guy doesn't even have the decency to, you know, say 'hi' to me. You totally saw the way he blew me off in the Crashdown yesterday." Maria's let out a hrmpt sound and cut off her rant. "Ok, I'm done." 

"That was fast." 

"What can I say? I've been yelling at my mirror for the last hour. I think I used up all my good rants." 

Liz could picture that. "Like my original suggestion, I say you ask him. Pull him aside, corner him if you have to." She had to do something similar with Max after he healed her. Must be an alien thing. 

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Maria asked, voice serious, "Are you having the same problem I am?" 

"What problem would that be?" 

"I kinda.. I don't know.. Wish I could help him, you know? Foster. I may just be 'a fickle aroma' but I feel kinda... Useless, you know? There's this whole big 'End of the World' thing going down, and I know about it, but I can't think of anything I can do to help stop it." 

Liz gave a small sigh, "Yeah. I'm having the same problem." 

"But The Children of Energy and Light. They're probably like really important in this whole thing, you know? Kinda makes me feel like.. I don't know... A side-kick. Cannonfodder gal. Like Robin. They get to be Batman, and we get to be Robin and Batgirl. Or in my case, Fickle Aroma-Chick. You're lucky you didn't get a cheesy nickname from Nostradamus." 

Liz knew exactly how her friend felt. Well, except for the cheesy nickname thing. "Who knows, Maria... Maybe we'll play a role someday. But I'm kind of hoping to get out of high school first. Then I can focus on saving the world." 

"Yeah, yeah." 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Eddie Nambulous was parked outside Chickasha, Oklahoma for a Sunday lunch when Foster called in. "Hey. I'm out of New Mexico." 

"About time, I was starting to think you got caught in a road block, buddy." 

"I got around those." 

"So where are you exactly?" 

"Stratford, Texas. I'll be on a bus for Arkansas in an hour." 

Eddie took the break in conversation to take a bite out of his sandwich. When he was done he spoke back into the mouth piece, "Good." 

There was a pause, then Foster said, "Don't put up the journals for this week, Eddie." 

"What??" Eddie sat up abruptly. "Foster, your journals are the whole basis of our operation here. People have to read them to understand the threat that's going on. You can't just pick and choose which ones to publish and which ones to pull." 

"Yes I can, Eddie. They're my journals. Besides, there's three innocent kids that could get hurt by what's written in my journals." 

"Innocent -alien- kids. Don't forget the -alien- part." Eddie burst out before he could stop himself. 

There was a long pause. "How'd you find that out, Eddie?" 

"I'm not a genius because I got lucky on a few tests, Foster." He turned in his chair to face his computer. "It's all right there in the Quatrain. Besides. That's why the FBI is following Liz Parker and the others. They think she was healed by an alien." He had finally cracked into the files he needed last night. 

"Damn. I should have told them about Tolpulski." Foster said harshly. 

"Don't worry. She's just there to observe. They're smart kids. They've remained undetected so far, haven't they?" 

"You're right, Eddie." 

"I love it when you say that." Eddie said with a grin. After a second, he asked, "So, there really was a crash in Roswell, huh?" 

"Looks that way." 

"I'm going to have to print a retraction on half my Roswell stories now." He never had believed the Crash was a real alien crash. He had been convinced it was a government hoax to distract attention from whatever they were really up to. 

Foster didn't really seem to care about his need to print the retraction though, and just went right to business, "I'll call you back in a few hours and get the info on the Arkansas case. Just promise me you won't post that journal entry." 

Eddie sighed and immediately took that file off the list of uploads for the day. "Alright, alright. We'll protect your little alien pals." 

The phone conversation was over, and Eddie took off the head set and looked at his computer. He clicked on the button to start the daily upload of information for the newsletter, then minimized the window. And found himself looking at the one thing he really didn't want to bring up the next time he saw Foster. Another Quatrain. He knew how sensitive Foster was when it came to innocents, and risking them for even a great victory. One look at this Quatrain and he would try to stop it. 

And Eddie couldn't allow that. This was one of the few Quatrains that had an extremely clear meaning to it. The last line spoke volumes. But if he told Foster of the Quatrain, all he would see were the first two lines. And Foster would try to stop it from happening. Not that he could stop it anyway. Who could stop fate? But if the first part of the Quatrain didn't happen... that would probably mean the second part wouldn't either. And the second part... 

It was the best lead they'd ever had to completing their mission. Of stopping the First Wave. One casualty beside the nineteen million the Gua plan to annihilate on the first day of invasion was a small price to pay. And the Quatrain may not mean that it would be a casualty. It could mean a lot of things. The word fall had many definitions. Either way, it was best if he kept it from Foster. 

Admittedly, as he locked the Quatrain behind a password and shredded the printed out copies he had with it on it, he felt bad for having to keep something so important from his friend. But for the last year they'd only come close to stopping the First Wave a few times, and Foster had given away their wild card every time. In Chesire, Massachusetts he let a teenage girl who had been genetically altered by the Gua go about a normal life, instead of turning her into the Journalist who Eddie had finally convinced to write a piece on the Invasion, as long as he had proof. Foster had given away their proof. And Eddie wasn't about to let history repeat itself again. 

As he shredded the final printed copy that he knew of of the Quatrain, Eddie glanced at the last line. A ray of hope in a void of darkness. Or as Nostradamus put it: A triad of stars to stop the flow of tides. 

Epilogue Deciding Vote 

"This meeting of the Assembly is to decide what measures to take with the Kahmezari Survivors. Joshua, step forward and state your recommendation." 

Looking towards Karl, the head of the Assembly, Joshua did just that, leaving his seat with the Acolyte heads. He started speaking, softly at first, "My mission was to go to Roswell, New Mexico and identify the Kahmezari survivors. File HKZ-4." The named file projected on above the circular table that the members of the Assembly sat around. School pictures of the three teenagers appeared. "Isabel Evans. Max Evans. Michael Guerin. The three identified survivors of the Kahmezari. They are sixteen years old. Attending West Roswell High School." The three pictures continued to cycle around. 

"My suggestion to the Assembly is to leave them alone. They are no threat to us, as long as we let them live their lives." 

Mia was the first to speak, her dislike of the Acolyte obvious. She was still resentful for him speaking against the Second Wave of invasion a few months ago. "Three Acolyte agents were killed on this mission alone, and yet you say they are no threat?" 

"Subject 117, Cade Foster was responsible for the deaths of the others. News reports from Roswell will confirm his presence, as he was sighted there." 

"And yet again he managed to escape both the local law and you. Why didn't you capture him, Joshua?" 

"His capture was not on the mission perimeters. I was sent to observe the survivors and learn if they were a threat. I completed my task, and left." 

Mia rolled her eyes and looked away. Another member of the Assembly threw out a question, "Are you sure they are no threat to us?" 

"From what I observed they were fully integrated into the human society. They had no knowledge of their species, or what happened to him." 

"What about their inherent abilities?" 

"Their lack of training in their abilities has caused them to atrophy. It is very likely they will never reach their full potential." 

"Operative Marcus called in and said that they had captured one, what happened to the one they captured?" Another Assembly member asked. 

"The one they captured was Michael Guerin. File HKZ-16." The file he had prepared on Michael Guerin appeared across the holographic projection. "Of the three, he is potentially the greatest threat because he has less standing in the human world then the other two, but his powers are even less tempered. Assuming they did not break mission protocol, they did not tell him anything, so he still has no knowledge on what was happening. I believe that is when Subject 117 interrupted their questioning of the boy, but I was not present at the time. They did not call me when they captured him." 

There was a look of confusion from the Council and District heads. Mia asked out loud what was likely on all their minds, "They broke protocol?" 

That got Joshua the edge that he needed. Breaking outside mission or experiment protocol was against the law. Punishable by immediate death. And it was outside protocol to not contact the leader of a mission with new developments. "Yes." 

There were hushed whispers around the room, and Karl silenced them, then turned his attention on Joshua, "Anything else you would like to add before the Assembly votes on this matter?" 

"Yes. Isabel Evans. Max Evans. Michael Guerin. Three children that pose little to no threat to us. I believe as long as we leave them alone in their small town of Roswell, that they will remain a minimal threat. We should keep our attention focused on matters of more immediate importance." 

There was silence, and Joshua went to the side. Karl declared for the voting to start. Kill or Spare. Again, Mia got to start first. She stood up, held her hand out, closed in a fist. "Kill." Of course she would vote opposite of what Joshua suggested. 

The vote went around the circle. And stopped on Karl. History repeated itself. Just like with the vote on whether or not to launch the Second Wave, it was left to Karl to vote either way. Kill. Or Spare. One deciding vote to name the fate of a species. 

End of Children of Light 


End file.
